“When I look into history and see the multitudes of men, otherwise virtuous, who have died, and their families been ruined, in the defense of knaves and fools, and which they would not have done, had they reasoned at all upon the system; I do not know a greater good that an individual can render to mankind, than to endeavor to break the chains of political superstition.”
-Thomas Paine
The path to ruin is sometimes paved with good intentions. Power wields unto itself often an authority it does not deserve, wisdom it does not process, and devotion of which it is not worthy.
Good men with right hearts must sometimes rise up and declare the emperor has no clothes.
“To see it in our power to make a world happy – to teach mankind the art of being – to exhibit on the theater of the universe, a character hitherto unknown – and to have, as it were, a new creation entrusted to our hands, are honors that command reflection, and can neither be too highly estimated, nor too gratefully received.
“Among ridiculous things nothing is more ridiculous than ridiculous rage.”