Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government.”
- Source
- Rights of Man
- Date
- 1791–1792
Meaning of “Man is not the enemy of man, but…”
Paine attributes much social conflict to institutions and inherited political systems rather than treating hostility as an unavoidable feature of human nature.
Where does it come from?
Rights of Man, Part I, Conclusion; represented from Moncure Daniel Conway’s public-domain Project Gutenberg #3742 collection. The passage attributes national hostility to old systems of government rather than to an inevitable enmity between people.
