These Are the Times that Try Men’s Souls
Mr. Paine both challenges and consoles us today, given that ’tis the season of the U.S.’s Declaration of Independence, the original American Suicide Pact. Benjamin Franklin supposedly said on the day of its signature “We must all hang together, or we surely will all hang separately”. True words from a true wordsmith.
And to give credit where due to another wordsmith par excellence, I believe Paine’s words are as true now as they were when he wrote them, in “The Crisis” (aka “The American Crisis”).
THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
- Thomas Paine
