M. M. Mangasarian: "In his dungeon his pen dropped light into the darkness of Europe and America by writing the 'Age of Reason.'"
"One of the most wonderful books ever written." Edgar W. Howe.
"The 'Age of Reason' defies the grave where other books of his generation sleep."—George E. Macdonald.
"Not only the one great skeptical work of his time, but the only one which seems destined to live for all time."—J. P. Bland.
"Paine's 'Age of Reason' is a masterpiece of Rationalistic literature."—William H. Maple.
"It is a masterpiece in every particular—sound, logical and truthful."—Sir Hiram Maxim.
"There are the most varied graces of literary style, a profound and gentle philosophy, and a genuine love of humanity."—William Heaford.
Mimnermus (England): "Out of the charnel-vault of Kingcraft and Priestcraft, Rousseau and the other great French Freethinkers saw in vision the ideal society of the future. Of this new evangel Paine was the prophet and Shelley was the poet.... In the 'Rights of Man' and the 'Age of Reason,' no less than in the 'Revolt of Islam' and 'Prometheus Unbound,' the expression glows with the solemn and majestic inspiration of prophecy."
John M. Robertson, M. P.: "The enduring popularity of the chief works of Thomas Paine is not the least remarkable fact in the history of opinion. It is given to few controversial writers to keep a large audience during a hundred years."
"In Paine's public life there are three great tidal periods—the period when he was helping more than any other to make the Revolution in America; the period when, having come to Europe, after the American Revolution, he published the 'Rights of Man' and laid in England the foundations of a new democracy in the very teeth of the great reaction of which Burke was the prophet; and lastly, the period when, after his hopes from the French Revolution had substantially failed, and he expected death as his own meed, he wrote his 'Age of Reason,' significantly making his last blow the most deadly of all his strokes at the reign of tradition."