Thomas Paine on Government and War
Submitted by Natural Solutio... on Tue, 2003-04-15 13:52From Common Sense:
"Monarchical governments, it is true, are never long at rest: the crown itself is a temptation to enterprising ruffians at home; and that degree of pride and insolence ever attendant on regal authority, swells into a rupture with foreign powers in instances where a republican government . . . would negotiate the mistake."
" . in absolute governments the king is law, [but] in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other."