Thomas Paine: “Thus commerce, though in itself a moral nullity, has had a considerable influence in tempering the human mind.”

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.

An hereditary governor is as inconsistent as an hereditary author.

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.

They had a cause at stake, on which depended their freedom or their slavery.