Who is Thomas Paine

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

That is the famous quote from Thomas Paine's pamphlet, The Crisis, one of many important papers from this "radical propagandist." Among his most respected works are The Age of Reason, Rights of Man, and of course Common Sense.

Paine, born January 29, 1737 in Thetford, Norfolk in England was a fervent advocate for independent thinking and freedom for all. Paine was a steadfast abolitionist as his first work, African Slavery in America, upon coming to America suggests. Paine is also considered an atheist by some, an opinion which I do not hold. Later in life, as revealed in Agrarian Justice, Opposed to Agrarian Law, and to Agrarian Monopoly, Paine regresses into a more "social conscious" ideology.


Click here for a modern twist: Common Sense Revisited