Thomas Paine: “But prejudice, like the spider, makes every where its home.”

To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin.

It was Government dethroning Government; and the old one, by attempting to make a new one, made a chasm.

In fine, society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government.

The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?