Thomas Paine on Monarchy
... the curtain.
“Monarchy always appears to me a silly, contemptible thing. I compare it to something kept behind a curtain, about which there is a great deal of bustle and fuss, and a wonderful air of seeming solemnity; but when, by any accident, the curtain happens to be open — and the company see what it is, they burst into laughter.”
—Thomas Paine, Rights of Man: Part 2, 1792
