Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them.

This line comes from Thomas Paine’s revolutionary pamphlet *Common Sense* (published in Philadelphia in January 1776), written to argue for American independence from Britain. Paine stresses that the colonies’ geographic separation from Europe is not a weakness but a strategic advantage: America can avoid being dragged into Europe’s dynastic wars and rivalries. In the pamphlet’s early sections, he attacks the logic of hereditary monarchy and the costs of imperial entanglements, urging Americans to see independence as the path to security and prosperity. The remark reflects Paine’s broader claim that America’s future should be oriented toward commerce with all nations rather than political subordination to any one power.

Paine frames America’s distance from Europe as a moral and practical opportunity. “Remote from all the wrangling world” casts Europe as chronically quarrelsome—defined by power politics and war—while America, if independent, can choose a different posture. The phrase “nothing to do but to trade with them” encapsulates a vision of peaceful commercial republicanism: prosperity through open exchange rather than empire, alliances, or inherited conflicts. The quote also functions rhetorically to make independence feel natural and beneficial, suggesting that political separation aligns with geographic reality. It anticipates later American ideas about avoiding “entangling” European disputes while maintaining international commerce.