"He threw the charms of poetry over the statue of reason," says Stephen Simpson, "and made converts to liberty as if a power of fascination presided over his pen."
John Adolphus: "He took with great judgment, a correct aim at the feelings and prejudices of those whom he intended to influence."
Hezekiah Butterworth: "He had a surprising power of direct forcible argument."
William Hazlitt: "Paine affected to reduce things to first principles, to announce self-evident truths."
W. J. Fox, M. P.: "A keen and powerful intellect, and a philosophical mind going to the foundation of every question; bringing first principles forward in a luminous and impressive manner.
Robert James Mackintosh: "His strong coarse sense and bold dogmatism conveyed in an instinctively popular style made Paine a dangerous enemy always."
M. Gerard: "You know too well the prodigious effects produced by the writings of this celebrated personage."
Madame Roland: "The boldness of his conceptions, the originality of his style, the striking truths which he boldly throws out in the midst of those whom they offend, must necessarily have produced great effects."
Edward C. Reichwald: "He was an intellectual gladiator who won his victories upon the field of thought."
Boston Herald: "There is no better illustration in all history than exists in Paine's writings of Bulwer's aphorism, 'The pen is mightier than the sword.'"