It is time that nations should be rational, and not be governed like animals, for the pleasure of their riders.
Thomas Paine: “It is time that nations should be rational, and not be governed like animals, for the pleasure of their riders.”
Editor's note · Context
In "Rights of Man," Paine declares that nations should act rationally and not be subjected to the arbitrary rule of their leaders, like animals to their riders.
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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?
Discussion and the general will arbitrates the question, and to this, private opinion yields with a good grace, and order is preserved uninterrupted.
In those which proceed from the former cause, the temper becomes incensed and soured; and the redress, obtained by danger, is too often sullied by revenge.
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.