Western Culture Global Presents The Top 100 Heroes of Western Culture These individuals have most contributed to replacing ignorance with knowledge, savagery with civilization, disease with health, tyranny with liberty, poverty with abundance, and despair with happiness. #35: Thomas Paine (1737-1809) Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was an English author and Enlightenment intellectual who authored the pamphlet Common Sense (1776), which was widely read in America and galvanized its march toward independence. The pamphlet criticized the existence of hereditary monarchy, dismissed reconciliation with England and made clear the economic gains that independence would bring while advocating equal rights among citizens. Paine succeeded in bringing together dissenting voices and persuading patriots that the American Revolution was practical, moral and a giant leap forward for humanity. John Adams said of the man: "Without the pen of Paine, the sword of Washington would have been wielded in vain." Go to #36: Robert Boyle Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — Home Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — by Numerical Order Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — by Century Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — by Category
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