What does this quote mean?

“Great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government.”

Paine argues that everyday social order also grows from mutual dependence, custom, exchange, and cooperation rather than being created entirely by government.

Source note: Rights of Man, Part II; the surrounding passage attributes much ordinary social coordination to society itself.

“life is the end and aim of consumption.”

Consumption is judged by what it ultimately does for human life, making economic activity a means rather than an end in itself within Ruskin’s argument.

Source note: Unto This Last, fourth essay; Project Gutenberg #36541. The line follows Ruskin’s distinction between production and consumption and retains the nineteenth-century political-economy setting.

“Society in equality is its normal state.”

Mill contrasts relations organized around command and obedience with equal association, presenting equality as the normal direction of an improving society.

Source note: The Subjection of Women, discussion of marriage and moral cultivation; the sentence follows Mill’s contrast between older command-and-obedience relations and society among equals.

“Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government.”

Paine attributes much social conflict to institutions and inherited political systems rather than treating hostility as an unavoidable feature of human nature.

Source note: Rights of Man, Part II; represented from the Conway public-domain collection.

“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”

Error is treated as ordinary human limitation, while forgiveness requires an additional act of generosity.

Source note: An Essay on Criticism, Part II; Pope warns that shallow learning can produce premature confidence before deeper study tempers judgment.

“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

The command uses care for oneself as the measure for care toward another person, linking healthy self-regard with outward responsibility rather than selfishness.

Source note: Matthew 22:39 in the King James Version.