It has been the crime and folly of England to suppose herself invincible, and that, without acknowledging or perceiving that a full third of her strength was drawn from the country she is now at war with.
From "The American Crisis," Paine criticizes England's arrogance in believing itself invincible while failing to recognize its dependence on the American colonies.
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Man cannot, properly speaking, make circumstances for his purpose, but he always has it in his power to improve them when they occur, and this was the case in France.
It has nothing to dread from attacks; truth has given it an establishment, and time will record it with a name as lasting as his own.
It was a sort of new form of government that insensibly served to put the old one out of sight and to unhinge it from the superstitious authority of antiquity.