Thomas Paine
1737–1809 · England
“These are the times that try men's souls.”
Peak-work percentile in the canon.
The lineage through Thomas Paine
Drew From(3)
who shaped Thomas Paine
- Paine's case against kings rests on 1 Samuel 8 — he quotes the chapter directly, naming Samuel and Gideon
- Israel's demand for a king, and God's warning against it, becomes Paine's scriptural proof that monarchy is a sin, not a right
- Read Samuel first and you'll see Paine isn't improvising — he's handing his Protestant readers their own Bible as the anti-monarchy brief
via The Gospels
- Paine builds part of his case by wresting The Gospels away from the monarchists, quoting Matthew's "render unto Caesar" and arguing it gives kings no sanction
- The verse had long been a prop for royal authority — knowing that history shows you exactly what Paine is overturning
- A pamphlet for independence, leaning on a Gospel verse to deny the divine right of kings
via Paradise Lost
- Paine's case against reconciliation with Britain leans on Milton, quoted by name
- He lifts Satan's "never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep" (Paradise Lost IV.98–99) and turns it on the crown
- Knowing whose mouth that line is in — the unrepentant rebel angel's — gives Paine's borrowing its full charge
Portraits
Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's smaller Dabos head-and-shoulders, painted c.1792 'for the purpose of engraving'; rediscovered at a 2008 house sale, a tighter framing of the canonical French likeness.
Laurent Dabos, 1792
Three-quarter oil portrait of the aged Paine in dark coat with white stock, facing the viewer with weathered features against a neutral ground.
John Wesley Jarvis, 1807
Half-length oil portrait of Paine in a black tailcoat and white necktie, presented in an oval composition, facing slightly left.
Laurent Dabos, 1792
Famous Quotes
“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil.”
“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.”
“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”
“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.”
About Thomas Paine
English-born American political activist, philosopher, and revolutionary, whose pamphlet Common Sense (1776) was instrumental in persuading American colonists to declare independence from Britain. His clear, forceful prose made complex political arguments accessible to ordinary people. He also participated in the French Revolution and narrowly escaped execution.