托马斯・潘恩，生于英格兰诺福克郡一个裁缝，上过几年学，先后做过学徒、鞋匠、英语教师、收税官，在富兰克林帮助下到达北美大陆，投身于争取北美独立事业，1776年以“一个英国人”名义发表《常识》，成为了北美人民明确的战斗纲领，并随后被吸收为《独立宣言》的精华，并随后被吸收为《独立宣言》的精华，除了《常识》，潘恩还应邀参加起草了《人权宣言》，出版过极具启蒙意义的《人的权利》、《土地正义论》、《理性时代》等著作，晚年回到美国，潘恩一生都在跟独夫民贼以及君主制等强大的“传统”作战，并终身宣扬激进的民主共和思想－－这些思想至今还闪耀着穿透历史迷雾的耀眼的光芒。

In its time over 600,000 copies of Common Sense were circulated through the Colonies. Not one to be "politically correct" Thomas Paine's little book was key to starting a revolution we know today as the United States of America. Quotes from within these pages: "A long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT" "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind." "A pretty business indeed for a man to be allowed eight hundred thousand sterling a year for, and worshipped into the bargain Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived." "The present winter is worth an age if rightly employed, but if lost or neglected, the whole continent will partake of the misfortune." "The present time, likewise, is that peculiar time, which never happens to a nation but once . . . the time of forming itself into a government. Most nations have let slip the opportunity, and by that means have been compelled to receive laws from their conquerors."