Thomas Paine Quote

If any generation of men ever possessed the right of dictating the mode by which the world should be governed for ever, it was the first generation that existed; and if that generation did it not, no succeeding generation can show any authority for doing it, nor can set any up.


Rights of Man... Fifth edition (ed. 1791)


If any generation of men ever possessed the right of dictating the mode by which the world should be governed for ever, it was the first generation...

If any generation of men ever possessed the right of dictating the mode by which the world should be governed for ever, it was the first generation...

If any generation of men ever possessed the right of dictating the mode by which the world should be governed for ever, it was the first generation...

If any generation of men ever possessed the right of dictating the mode by which the world should be governed for ever, it was the first generation...