"The trade of governing has always been..." - Quote by Thomas Paine

“In the progress of politics, as in the common occurrences of life, we are not only apt to forget the ground we have travelled over, but frequently neglect to gather up experiences as we go.”

“We repose an unwise confidence in any government, or in any men, when we invest them officially with too much, or an unnecessary quantity of, discretionary power.”

“Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.”

“Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.”

“It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power is independent of the nation.”

“Men are not governed by justice, but by law or persuasion. When they refuse to be governed by law or persuasion, they have to be governed by force or fraud, or both.”

“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.”

“Tyranny knows no restraint of appetite.”

“This country has been strip-mined by rich and powerful interests. If you dont like what they're doing, don't just sit there. Vote them out.”