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 … - Thomas Paine

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins ... Society is in every state a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

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;

Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

Society in every state is a blessing, but a government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.

Society in every state is a blessing, but a government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one

The universe is composed of matter, and, as a system, is sustained by motion. Motion is not a property of matter, and without this motion the solar system could not exist. Were motion a property of matter, that undiscovered and undiscoverable thing, called perpetual motion, would establish itself. It is because motion is not a property of matter, that perpetual motion is an impossibility in the hand of every being, but that of the Creator of motion. When the pretenders to Atheism can produce perpetual motion, and not till then, they may expect to be credited.

But the fraud being once established, could not afterward be explained, for it is with a pious fraud as with a bad action, it begets a calamitous necessity of going on.

Society in every state is a blessing, but a government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.