When my country, into which I had just set my foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to stir. It was time for every man to stir. - Thomas Paine

Nimeni nu va nega sau nu va pune in discutie puterea Atotputernicului de a infaptui, daca doreste, o astfel de comunicare. Dar admitand, de dragul argumentului, ca unei persoane i s-a revelat ceva, fara sa i se reveleze vreunei alteia, atunci aceea este revelatie numai pentru acea persoana. Cand ii spune despre ea unei a doua persoane, iar a doua unei a treia, iar a treia unei a patra si asa mai departe, inceteaza sa mai fie revelatie pentru toate acele persoane. Este revelatie doar pentru prima persoana, iar pentru toate celelalte este un zvon, nefiind astfel obligate sa o creada.

If I owe a person money, and cannot pay him, and he threatens to put me in prison, another person can take the debt upon himself, and pay it for me. But if I have committed a crime, every circumstance of the case is changed. Moral justice cannot take the innocent for the guilty even if the innocent would offer itself. To suppose justice to do this, is to destroy the principle of its existence, which is the thing itself. It is then no longer justice. It is indiscriminate revenge.

Civil government alone, or the government of laws, is not productive of pretences for many taxes; it operates at home, directly under the eye of the country, and precludes the possibility of much imposition. But when the scene is laid in the uncivilized contention of governments, the field of pretences is enlarged, and the country, being no longer a judge, is open to every imposition, which governments please to act.