Whatever the apparent cause of any riots may be, the real one is always want of happiness. It shows that something is wrong in the system of governme… - Thomas Paine

As politicians we ought not so much to ground our hopes on the reasonableness of the thing we ask, as on the reasonableness of the person whom we ask it: who would expect discretion from a fool, candor from a tyrant, or justice from a villain?

The only religion that has not been invented, and that has in it every evidence of divine originality, is pure and simple deism. It must have been the first, and will probably be the last that man believes: but pure and simple deism does not answer the purpose of despotic governments. They cannot lay hold of religion as an engine, but by mixing it with human inventions, and making their own authority a part.

And I put it as a question to those, who make a study of mankind, whether representation and election is not too great a power for one and the same body of men to possess?