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Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil in its worst state, an intolerable one.

Thomas Paine

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Thomas Paine
Age: 72 †
Born: 1737
Born: January 29
Died: 1809
Died: June 8
Author
Entrepreneur
Journalist
Opinion Journalist
Philosopher
Politician
Prosaist
Writer
Thetford
Norfolk
War
Libertarian
Political
Conservative
Intolerable
States
Motivation
Anarchism
Government
Necessary
Anarchist
Best
Liberty
Conservatism
Even
Worst
Governing
State
Intolerance
Evil
Founding

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The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.
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Government without a constitution, is a power without a right.
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As my object was not myself, I set out with the determination, and happily with the disposition, of not being moved by praise or censure, friendship or calumny, nor of being drawn from my purpose by any personal altercation and the man who cannot do this, is not fit for a public character.
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Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infinitely more advantage than any victory with all its expence.
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The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.
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It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.
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Wrong cannot have a legal descendant.
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... a thirst for power is the natural disease of monarchy.
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There is something in meanness which excites a species of resentment that never subsides, and something in cruelty which stirs up the heart to the highest agony of human hatred.
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The final event to himself has been, that as he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick.
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I detest the Bible as I detest everything that is cruel.
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Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.
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I disbelieve all holy men and holy books.
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If there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this in which America is now engaged.
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Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches and tho' avarice will preserve a man from being necessitously poor, it generally makes him too timorous to be wealthy.
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Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe.
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To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.
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The right of voting for representatives , is the primary right by which other rights are protected.
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Wisdom is not the purchase of a day, and it is no wonder that we should err at the first setting off.
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The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.
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