In all those matters the right of judging and acting are in those who pay, and not in those who receive.
Thomas Paine: “In all those matters the right of judging and acting are in those who pay, and not in those who receive.”
Editor's note · Context
He asserts that the ultimate authority and right to judge in matters of governance reside with the people who fund it, rather than with those who hold power.
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Reason and discussion, persuasion and conviction, become the weapons in the contest, and it is only when those are attempted to be suppressed that recourse is had to violence.
But as religion is very improperly made a political machine, and the reality of it is thereby destroyed, I will conclude this work with stating in what light religion appears to me.
Why may we not suppose, that the great Father of all is pleased with variety of devotion; and that the greatest offence we can act, is that by which we seek to torment and render each other miserable?
If, therefore, the good to be obtained be worthy of a passive, rational, and costless revolution, it would be bad policy to prefer waiting for a calamity that should force a violent one.