Thomas Paine: “It is the faculty of the human mind to become what it contemplates, and to act in unison with its object.”

The American constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.

I know the value of moral instruction, and I have seen the danger of the contrary.

Why is it that scarcely any are executed but the poor?

The Aristocracy had hitherto opposed the despotism of the Court, and affected the language of patriotism; but it opposed it as its rival (as the English Barons opposed King John) and it now opposed the nation from the same motives.