A vast mass of mankind are degradedly thrown into the back-ground of the human picture, to bring forward, with greater glare, the puppet-show of state and aristocracy.
Thomas Paine: “A vast mass of mankind are degradedly thrown into the back-ground of the human picture, to bring forward, with greater…”
Editor's note · Context
In "Rights of Man," Paine criticizes how large portions of humanity are marginalized to highlight the ostentatious display of state and aristocracy.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
I have no idea, considering the reforms which are now passing and spreading throughout Europe, that England will permit herself to be the last; and where the occasion and the opportunity quietly offer, it is better than to wait for a…
Reason and discussion, persuasion and conviction, become the weapons in the contest, and it is only when those are attempted to be suppressed that recourse is had to violence.
I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.
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.