Why Did Thomas Paine Still Relevant Today

rather poor family and thus he received very little formal education. In fact, Thomas Paine was almost entirely self-educated and at the age of 13 he started his career as a corset maker like his father. Due to these impediments, the early years of Paine’s life were full of failures. Nonetheless, Paine would eventually go on to not only attain recognition amongst his fellow Americans for his literary works but also to be given the honor of becoming one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. Thomas Paine’s literary works were incredibly significant during the events of the American Revolution and many of his works are still considered extremely remarkable and respected today, over two hundred years later.

One of Thomas Paine’s

An example of this would be Paine’s quote “Character is much easier kept than recovered”, (“Thomas Paine, still relevant today?” para. 3), an ideal which has stood the test of time and still to this day, 200 years later, still remains indisputable. This notion of lost character is still relevant, especially in today’s world of politics, “It is not all too hard to live a life of good character, but it is nearly impossible to regain your good character once you have lost it” (“Thomas Paine, still relevant today?” para. 3). One instance of this would be the aftermath of President Nixon’s Watergate scandal. The fact that a man who was once held in such high regard could lose all credibility and support within an instant, a loss from which he could not recover from. It would seem as though, even now, our national government has remained as corrupt and deluded as ever. In what is perhaps Paine’s most famous pamphlet Common Sense which was published on January 10, 1776, Paine expresses his ideals on government which have carried on into modern society. Paine stated “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” (Wolfe para. 2). In other words, society is good and pure while government is oftentimes corrupt. However, it is necessary because without it, society cannot exist. This type of idealism was used to influence the mindset of the people of America at the