Pamphlet; We the People 'Common Sense'
We the People Common sense "A long period of being wrong gives the superficial appearance of being right. Society is produced by our will, government by our wickedness. Society is a blessing, but government is only an evil. (Paine, Thomas, 1776) Perhaps the sentiments in the following pages are not yet fashionable enough to grant them a general favour; a long habit of thinking nothing wrong gives a superficial appearance of being right, and initially evokes a formidable indignation in defence of the habit. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason. A long and violent abuse of power is generally the means to mention the right of it (and also in cases that would never have been thought of, if the sufferers had not been aggravated in the investigation), and if the King of England has undertaken in his own right, to support Parliament in what he calls them, and if the good people of this country are eerily oppressed by the combination, they have