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

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"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." - Copy to Clipboard
-- Thomas Paine

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Top 5 quotes from Thomas Paine

"When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon."

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church."

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

"It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime."

Top 5 quotes from Government

"When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right."

"The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry."

"There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."

"Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things."

"Egalitarians create the most dangerous inequality of all -- inequality of power. Allowing politicians to determine what all other human beings will be allowed to earn is one of the most reckless gambles imaginable. Like the income tax, it may start off being applied only to the rich but it will inevitably reach us all."