Thomas Paine

"Paine's early life in England made him profoundly skeptical of the view that government and religious institutions are above public suspicion. On this basis, he began his public life as a journalist, a defender of government employees' right to organize into trade unions, and a critic of the enslavement of Africans. Paine then smashed into the antiquated structures of monarchy so cherished by the governing political classes of the day. Monarchy in its various forms supposed that the body politic must be ordered hierarchically, so that every lesser unit, right down to the individual, should know its place beneath a ruler whose sanctity and power were inviolable. Paine considered the whole thing preposterous -- as ludicrous as a bad play. Monarchy is "something kept behind a curtain, about which there is a great deal of bustle and fuss, and a wonderful air of ludicrous as a bad play. Monarchy is "something kept behind a curtain, about which there is a great deal of bustle and fuss, and a wonderful air of seeming solemnity,' he wrote. 'But when, by any accident, the curtain happens to be open, and the company se what it is, they burst into laughter.'"

Here are two paragraphs taken from Paine's famous pamphlet, "Common Sense":
"Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first 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 A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least. 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."