We can all see the absurdity of worshipping Aaron's molten calf, or Nebuchadnezzar's golden image; but why do men continue to practise themselves the absurdities they despise in others?
Paine questions why people continue to engage in absurd practices they readily condemn in historical or religious contexts.
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To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin.
When it becomes necessary to do anything, the whole heart and soul should go into the measure, or not attempt it.
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.
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.