Thus familiarized to misfortune, before it arrived, they bore their portion with the less regret: the justness of their cause was a continual source of consolation, and the hope of final victory, which never left them, served to lighten the load and sweeten the cup allotted them to drink.
From a series of pamphlets written during the American Revolution, this passage explains how the American colonists' belief in their cause and hope for victory sustained them through hardship.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
I know the value of moral instruction, and I have seen the danger of the contrary.
He writes neither in the character of a Frenchman nor an Englishman, but in the fawning character of that creature known in all countries, and a friend to none--a courtier.
Burke's Book is easily accounted for.--When a man in a wrong cause attempts to steer his course by anything else than some polar truth or principle, he is sure to be lost.