“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides.
Time makes more converts than reason.”
On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine published his infamous pamphlet, Common Sense. This forty-seven-page pamphlet advocated independence from Great Britain. The pamphlet was written in an attempt to convince colonists that they needed to break away and form their own country.
Robert Bell published the first edition of Common Sense in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The pamphlet was sold, distributed widely, and read aloud at many taverns and meeting houses. According to reports, Common Sense sold more copies than any other American book in history.
“Common sense will tell us, that the power which hath endeavoured to subdue us,
is of all others, the most improper to defend us.”
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