Common Sense

I'm currently reading the collected writings of Thomas Paine, quite beautifully compiled by the Library of America, and there isn't a single passage that I'd feel uncomfortable quoting in full. Here, during his pamphlet, Common Sense, under the heading, 'Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession', he gives the strongest opposition to the absurd, constitutional principle that we Britons live, fight, and work under to this day:

This is supposing the present race of kings in the world to have had an honourable origin; whereas it is more probable, that could we take off the dark covering of antiquity, and trace them to their first rise, that we should find the first of them nothing better than the principle ruffian of some restless gang, whose savage manners or pre-eminence in subtility obtained him the title of chief among plunderers; and who by increasing in power, and extending his depredations, overawed the quiet and defenceless to purchase their safety by frequent contributions. [...] That which first was submitted to as a convenience, was afterwards claimed as a right.