Quotessence
Home / Books / Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution

Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution

Book by Thomas Paine · 7 quotes · Government, Politics, Men

Filter quotes by topic

Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution Quotes

“They took care to represent government as a thing made up of mysteries, which only themselves understood, and they hid from the understanding of the nation, the only thing that was beneficial to know, namely, that government is nothing more than a national association acting on the principles of society.”

“Government is not a trade which any man or body of men has a right to set up and exercise for his own emolument, but is altogether a trust, in right of those by whom that trust is delegated, and by whom it is always resumable. It has of itself no rights; they are altogether duties.”

“Government has no right to make itself a party in any debates respecting the principles or mode of forming or of changing, constitutions. It is not for the benefit of those who exercise the powers of government, that constitutions, and the governments issuing from them, are established.”