Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Confounded.........................

     Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them;  whereas they are not only different, but have different origins.  Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness;  the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.  The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions.  The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
     Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil;  in its wrong state an intolerable one.............
-Thomas Paine, from the beginning of Common Sense

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