Thomas Paine: “I am not one of those who wish to see Europe in a flame, because I am persuaded that such an event will not shorten the…”

Man cannot, properly speaking, make circumstances for his purpose, but he always has it in his power to improve them when they occur, and this was the case in France.

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.

But the spirit of the nation was not to be overcome, and it was so fully sensible of the strong ground it had taken--that of withholding taxes--that it contented itself with keeping up a sort of quiet resistance, which effectually…

A knowledge of the practice was then joined to the theory; and all that was wanting to give it real existence was opportunity.