Thomas Paine goes to great lengths in Common Sense to distinguish the difference between "society" and "government".
"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; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a county without a government, our calamities are heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer."
- Thomas Paine
