Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness; the former promotes happiness by uniting our affections, the latter promotes negativity by restraining our vices.
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 our government which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities are heightened by reflecting on the fact that we furnish the means by which we suffer!
Government, like clothing, is a badge of lost innocence; the palaces of our government are built on the ruins of our paradise.
Tom Paine - Common Sense (paraphrased)
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