"To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture."
How about that, and I never read any of Thomas Paine's writing or "Common Sense." I do know he was born in Thetford, England, became a teacher in London, and was transferred to Lewes in Sussex, England. A while back, I saw a program about the village of Lewes, and they briefly covered his time there. There is a plaque on the building he once lived in. At the time, it was a 15th Century tobacco shop known at the Bull House. Up until then, I hadn't known he'd been born abroad. His good fortune was to be introduced to Benjamin Franklin.