Thomas Paine Quotes on Government (6 Quotes)

Man is not the enemy of Man, but through the medium of a false system of government.

That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of nations, is as shocking as it is true but when those who are concerned in the government of a country, make it their study to sow discord, and cultivate prejudices between nations, it becomes the more unpardonable.

I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent. Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils.

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

The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.

Uncritical reverence for the Founding Fathers was less ubiquitous while they actually lived.... 'The Reign of Terror that raged in America during the latter end of the Washington Administration, and the whole of that of Adams, is enveloped in mystery to me. That there were men in the Government hostile to the representative system, was once their toast, though it is now their overthrow, and therefore the fact is established against them.'