One aspect of Paine’s writing that is particularly worth remembering in our current circumstances was his attempt to establish “principles…on which government ought to be erected,” which our government today has migrated far from.

"Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."

"[G]overning has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind."

"Some writers have…confounded society with government…[but] Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices…The first is a patron, the last a punisher."

"An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws."

"[G]overnments…pervert the abundance which civilized life produces…It affords to them pretenses for power and revenue, for which there would be neither occasion nor apology, if the circle of civilization were rendered complete."

"[W]e still feel the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping at the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised to furnish new pretenses for revenue and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without a tribute."

"All power exercised over a nation…must be either delegated, or assumed…All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation."

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression."

"Government…[has] no other object than the general happiness. When, instead of this, it operates to create and increase wretchedness in any of the parts of society, it is on a wrong system, and reformation is necessary."

"The American constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech and practically construct them into syntax."

"The original principles upon which [America] resisted…to remember them rightly is repossessing them."

"What are [other things] to the inestimable blessings of 'Liberty and Safety!'"

"I become irritated at the attempt to govern mankind by force and fraud, as if they were all knaves and fools."

https://fee.org/articles/thomas-paine-on-government-liberty-and-power/