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229 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1791
The circumstances of the world are continually changing, and the opinions of men change also; and as government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it. That which may be thought right and found convenient in one age, may be thought wrong and found inconvenient in another. In such cases, Who is to decide, the living, or the dead?
What is the use of discussing a man's abstract right to food or to medicine? The question is upon the method of procuring and administering them.
supreme authority placed in the hands of men not taught habitually to respect themselves; who had no previous fortune in character at stake; who could not be expected to bear with moderation, or to conduct with discretion, a power which they themselves, more than any others, must be surprized to find in their hands.
The occupation of an hair-dresser, or of a working tallow-chandler, cannot be a matter of honour to any person—to say nothing of a number of other more servile employments.
[W]hen the French Revolution is compared with the revolutions of other countries [Paine wrote], the astonishment will be, that it is marked with so few sacrifices.
Whom has the National Assembly brought to the scaffold? None.