Rev. E. M. Frank: "Thomas Paine was, in his time, one who stood in the
forefront of human progress."
Dr. Edward Bond Foote: "As Lincoln was the man for his time and place,
so Paine fitted perfectly and filled remarkably the niche which history
allotted to him."
Horace L. Green: "Thomas Paine, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln,
the glorious trinity of Independence."
Eugene V. Debs: "The revolutionary history of the United. States and
France stirred me deeply and its heroes and martyrs became my idols.
Thomas Paine towered above them all."
Knut Martin Teigen, M.D., Ph.D.: "Thomas Paine was, beyond all doubt, a
true genius."
Dr. John Walker (with Paine in France): "There can be no question
that Paine was a man of the most gigantic genius and of the soundest
practical knowledge."
Joel Barlow, ambassador to France during Napoleon's reign, Paine's
companion in London and Paris, and to whom he entrusted the manuscript
of his "Age of Reason" when he was taken to prison, says: "Paine was
endowed with the clearest perception, an uncommon share of original
genius, and the greatest depth of thought.... As a visiting acquaintance
and literary friend, he was one of the most instructive men I have ever
known."
"He ought to be ranked among the brightest and most undeviating
luminaries of the age in which he lived."--_Ibid._
"To me Thomas Paine appears as one of the master spirits of the
earth."--_Horace Seaver._
"One who deserves from his still ungrateful country an honored place
in her Hall of Fame."--_Rev. Eugene Rodman Shippen._
Rev. Dr. L. M. Birkhead: "Paine in days to come will be considered one
of the greatest men and statesmen the world has ever known."
"I regard Thomas Paine as one of the greatest men the world has ever
produced, and all ought to be proud that he belonged to our race."--_Sir
Hiram Maxim._