I'm sure if I were forced to read this revolutionary pamphlet when I was a teenaged kid in high school, I would have hated it then. Now, not so much. Now it's enjoyable in a way that I actually don't mind reading it and don't find it dry at all. In places I can hear the passion in the man's voice. (I'm sure it helped that the audiobook narrator was very good!)

So far, of the quotable Paine, my favorite line is about how the beheading of Charles I didn't make things better: For the fate of Charles the First hath only made kings more subtle, not more just."

Supposedly George Washington, in his days at the head of the Continental Army, would read his men passages of Paine's works to keep up their spirits. Unfortunately, after the revolutionary fervor in both the US and in France subsided, Paine lost a lot of popularity and prestige. He died in poverty, and his gravesite was not respected. Ten years later, a Paine enthusiast disinterred the bones with the intent of bringing them back to England for a proper burial. Unfortunately, calamity struck, the bones were scattered and his remains have been located (probably) in a tavern wall in England, Wales, and now maybe Australia. Who knows? Maybe that fancy antique button is a small part of Paine's leg bone?