“The circumstances of the world are continually changing, and the opinions of man change also; and as government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it.”

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The circumstances of the world are continually changing, and the opinions of man change also; and as government is for …" by Thomas Paine?
Thomas Paine photo
Thomas Paine 262
English and American political activist 1737–1809

Related quotes

John C. Maxwell photo

“Most people would rather change their circumstances to improve their lives when instead they to change themselves to improve their circumstances.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

Book Sometimes you win Sometimes you Learn

Tony Abbott photo

“Governments which live in fear of tomorrow's headline are incapable of any change.”

Tony Abbott (1957) Australian politician

First speech of Tony Abbott to Australian Parliament https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22chamber/hansardr/1994-05-31/0043%22, 1994.
First speech to Parliament

Andrew S. Grove photo

“A corporation is a living organism; it has to continue to shed its skin. Methods have to change. Focus has to change. Values have to change. The sum total of those changes is transformation.”

Andrew S. Grove (1936–2016) Hungarian-born American businessman, engineer, and author

Andrew Grove, in: " What I've Learned: Andy Grove http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/interviews/a1449/learned-andy-grove-0500/", Esquire magazine, May 1, 2000
New millennium

William Faulkner photo
Isaac Asimov photo

“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be …”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

General sources
Source: "My Own View" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1978) edited by Robert Holdstock;
Context: It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be... This, in turn, means that our statesmen, our businessmen, our everyman must take on a science fictional way of thinking.

A. P. Herbert photo
John Ruskin photo
Abraham Lincoln photo

“Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Speech at a Republican Banquet, Chicago, Illinois, December 10, 1856 http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln2/1:413?rgn=div1;view=fulltext; see Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953), p. 532
1850s
Context: Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much.

Daniel Webster photo

“Inconsistencies of opinion, arising from changes of circumstances, are often justifiable.”

Daniel Webster (1782–1852) Leading American senator and statesman. January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852. Served as the Secretary of Sta…

Speech (July 25 and 27, 1846); reported in Edward Everett, ed., The Works of Daniel Webster (1851), Vol. V, p. 187

James Russell Lowell photo

“The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

My Study Windows (1871)

Related topics