Nations, like individuals, who have long been enemies, without knowing each other, or knowing why, become the better friends when they discover the errors and impositions under which they had acted.
In "Rights of Man," Paine suggests that nations, much like individuals, can overcome historical animosities and forge stronger friendships upon realizing past misunderstandings or deceptions.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
It serves to keep up deceitful expectations which prevent people from looking into the defects and abuses of government.
As soldiers have hitherto been treated in most countries, they might be said to be without a friend.
The poor, in all countries, are naturally both peaceable and grateful in all reforms in which their interest and happiness is included.
I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.