Rights of Man

Thomas Paine's Declaration of the Rights of Man can be approached from his most telling points:

1: Men are born, and always continue, free and equal in respect of their rights. Civil distinctions, therefore, can be founded only on public utility.

2: The end of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance of oppression.

3: The nation is essentially the source of all sovereignty; nor can any individual, or any body of men, be entitled to any authority which is not expressly derived from it.

Note the resemblance to the Declaration of Independence.

Tom Paine's view of individual human rights

When the French called for the execution of the monarch, Tom Paine simply suggested that the monarch be exiled to America, where he would then have to work for a living. Paine was ignored.