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.
Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings
are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of
conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other
lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a
part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this
he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him
out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the
true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof
appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expence and greatest
benefit, is preferable to all others.
Thomas Paine
CONNECT
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