"To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture."
Thomas Paine was an English-born American writer and political pamphleteer whose works shaped revolutionary thought in the Atlantic world. He is best known for Common Sense, The American Crisis, Rights of Man, and The Age of Reason.