The romantic and barbarous distinction of men into Kings and subjects, though it may suit the condition of courtiers, cannot that of citizens; and is exploded by the principle upon which Governments are now founded.
In "Rights of Man," Paine condemns the division of people into kings and subjects as an outdated and barbaric concept incompatible with the rights of citizens.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
The aristocracy has screened itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost equilibrium.
The man who is in the receipt of a million a year is the last person to promote a spirit of reform, lest, in the event, it should reach to himself.
The meaning, then, good people, of all this, is: That government is governed by no principle whatever; that it can make evil good, or good evil, just as it pleases.