Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
1906
AUTHOR:
Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
QUOTATION:
The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.
ATTRIBUTION:
THOMAS PAINE, “Dissertation on First Principles of Government,” The Writings of Thomas Paine, ed. Moncure D. Conway, vol. 3, p. 267 (1895). Originally published in 1795.
