A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Government is a necessary evil that can cause suffering, even as it is meant to protect society.
In this quote, Thomas Paine reflects on the dual nature of government. While society itself is a blessing, government, in any form, is a necessary construct that can lead to suffering and misery. Paine argues that the very institutions meant to govern and protect us can become sources of hardship, especially when they fail or betray the trust of the people. He points out the irony that citizens bear the burden of the government's actions, highlighting the complexities of power and authority within societal structures.
Themes
GovernmentSocietyEvilSufferingPower
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a political debate to discuss the limits of government power.
More from Thomas Paine
All quotes →That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not.
Thomas PaineRead
I consider the war of America against Britain as the country's war, the public's war, or the war of the people in their own behalf, for the security of their natural rights, and the protection of their own property.
Thomas PaineRead
Had the news of salvation by Jesus Christ been inscribed on the face of the sun and the moon, in characters that all nations would have understood, the whole earth had known it in twenty-four hours, and all nations would have believed it; whereas, though it is now almost two thousand years since, as they tell us, Christ came upon earth, not a twentieth part of the people of the earth know anything of it, and among those who do, the wiser part do not believe it.
Thomas PaineRead
The end of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance of oppression.
Thomas PaineRead
To reason with goverments, as they have existed for ages, is to argue with brutes. It is only from the nations themselves that reforms can be expected
Thomas PaineRead
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