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February
12th, 2001
125
Days until Cost of Government Day 2001
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"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 produced by our wants,
and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness
POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by
restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates
distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
"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 we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a GOVERNMENT,
which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is
heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we
suffer."
-- Thomas Paine ("Common Sense," 1776)
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