Thomas Paine: “What are the present Governments of Europe but a scene of iniquity and oppression?”

He writes neither in the character of a Frenchman nor an Englishman, but in the fawning character of that creature known in all countries, and a friend to none--a courtier.

Man cannot, properly speaking, make circumstances for his purpose, but he always has it in his power to improve them when they occur, and this was the case in France.

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

A constitution is not a thing in name only, but in fact.