"Aristocracy has a tendency to degenerate the..." - Quote by Thomas Paine

“It is important that we should never lose sight of this distinction. We must not confuse the peoples with their governments.”

“Men should not petition for rights, but take them”

“Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.”

“If the individuals who compose the purest circles of aristocracy in Europe, the guarded blood of centuries, should pass in review,in such manner as that we could, at leisure, and critically inspect their behavior, we might find no gentleman, and no lady; for, although excellent specimens of courtesy and high-breeding would gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars, we should detect offence. Because, elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth.”

“There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.”

“Aristocracy is kept up by family tyranny and injustice.”

“To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order; we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.”

“Ladies and gentlemen are permitted to have friends in the kennel, but not in the kitchen.”

“Give me a different set of mothers and I will give you a different world”