"Whether we defeat the enemy in one battle, or by degrees, the consequences will be the same" (Thomas Paine).

Sir Ludovic's scepticism about a deity was then clinched by Thomas Paine's "the Age of Reason".

Further evidence of the importance of common people in the movement is the success of Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet, common Sense, which was written for the masses and not the upper class.