Common Sense

by Thomas Paine

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.

For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver;