Where we would wish to reform we must not reproach.
Thomas Paine: “Where we would wish to reform we must not reproach.”
Editor's note · Context
Paine advises that effective reform requires a constructive approach, avoiding blame or condemnation of those one seeks to change.
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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.
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.
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…