“Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.”
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
“Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.”
The above-quotes were all uttered by Winston L. S. Churchill, one of the greatest men to ever live, and arguably the greatest Englishman. He was a journalist, soldier, author, member of Parliament, Lord of the Admiralty, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary. He served as Minister of Munitions, Secretary for War and Air, Secretary for the Colonies, and President of the Board of Trade. He was Prime Minister of Great Britian (twice), and he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his history of World War II.
But for Winston Churchill, the world would be very different now. Britons would likely be speaking German, and the United States an isolated, poor, and defeated country. Winston Churchill spent many a year in “the wilderness”, warning his countrymen of the dangers of Adolph Hitler and the rise of fascism in Europe. Very few listened, and many of those who did dismissed his warnings. If Winston Churchill had died on August 31, 1939, no one but his family might ever have remembered him. But on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and the world’s most terrible war began. Neville Chamberlain had no choice but to confront reality, and he had no choice but to bring Churchill into the government, as Lord of the Admiralty. By 1940, Neville Chamberlain was gone, and Winston Churchill became Prime Minister at Britain’s, and the world’s, most perilous hour.
With the fall of France, and the British retreat from Dunkirk, Great Britain stood alone, as Germany dominated all of Western Europe. The situation appeared hopeless, as fears of a German invasion grew, and German bombers gave no quarter to the English cities, bombing them mercilessly. In the face of almost certain defeat, Winston Churchill rallied his fellow countrymen to defiance, defense, and eventually, offense. Great Britain was able to hang on until relief could come from the United States, seemingly on Churchill’s strength of character alone.
To read Churchill’s writings is to be drawn into the thick of events as they happened. To read about Churchill is to be transported back to a time where brave men acted with common sense, determination, and courage.
The Observations strongly recommends any books about Winston Churchill written by either Martin Gilbert or Andrew Roberts. Or by Winston Churchill himself. The knowledge gained from their scholarship not only reveals the past but provides lessons for our present and future.
Winston Churchill died at age 90 on this date in 1965. We may never see his likes again. But we can learn from his time on Earth, and it would profit all of us to do so. May God Bless his soul.
Today we examine the efforts of one of our country’s least appreciated Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine. Often referred to as Thomas Jefferson’s favorite author, Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense, was an inspiration to those fighting for liberty from the British Crown. Enjoy!
WHEN COMMON SENSE WENT VIRAL
BY: Will Sellers, The American Spectator (January 4, 2026).
Two hundred fifty years ago on January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine published his influential pamphlet, Common Sense. In today’s words, its publication went “viral” as it was re-printed and distributed throughout the American colonies.
[H]is approach to government was so radical that he was treated with disdain in the United States, Great Britain, and France.
At the time of its circulation, the colonies were in a state of flux. British troops were engaged in active combat against colonial militias and both sides had taken significant casualties. But not all the colonies were in active rebellion. In fact, some colonial leaders sought reconciliation, but everyone realized the military conflict had irreversibly altered the colonists’ relationship with their mother country.
The next steps were uncertain, and no single idea of a way forward captured the imagination of the colonists.
Into this purgatory of crisis of conscience entered Thomas Paine and his thoughts about King George III, Parliament and the idea of monarchy. In many ways, Paine was a Johnny come lately to the American cause. He had only immigrated to the colonies in late 1774 and had not experienced anything but the growing animosity between the colonists and Britain. He had not seen the initial autonomy of the colonies nor felt the symbiotic relationship between local, colonial government and the crown.
Paine was in trouble and not welcomed in Britain. He was a strident critic of his government and advocated any number of radical causes including the elimination of the monarchy. In fact, he spent so much time on political advocacy that he lost his position as a tax collector and the business he inherited from his wife failed. Facing debtors’ prison, he was forced to sell assets and with such financial instability, he became separated from his wife.
Fortunately, Paine was introduced to Benjamin Franklin in London and was encouraged to emigrate to Philadelphia. So, as many others had done, he left his financial and domestic troubles at home, crossed the Atlantic and came to Pennsylvania for a fresh start.
His arrival in Philadelphia came just as the Boston colonists were rattling sabers at Red Coats’ occupation of their town. Once fighting at Lexington and Concord started, Paine was in a unique position to assess and then encourage colonial independence. In the first full year of coming to America, he experienced the anxiety of the colonists with their relationship with Britain. He had witnessed the military conflict in Massachusetts and was in the middle of a political vortex of the colonist’s consideration of what direction to pursue.
Common Sense came at the ideal time as all colonists were questioning not only their relationship with the King and Parliament, but how they would organize to govern and protect themselves. If the road to independence was not clear, Paine provided a shining path.
As a newcomer, Paine published the work anonymously, identifying himself only as “an Englishman,” believing that the appearance of English authorship would confer greater legitimacy on his argument.
His work hit the right nerve. Within a few months more than 100,000 copies of the 47-page pamphlet were in circulation throughout the colonies. Paine’s work seemed to finally supply the organizing principle of independence to the colonists.
Rather than make the distinction that the British Parliament and not King George was the root cause of the colonists’ predicament, Paine directly attacked the King. Lambasting George III was not based on specific actions, but on the idea of the monarchy itself. Paine was a republican and 250 years ago, that meant no hereditary monarchy. Viewing all men as equal he argued that kings were historically the source of trouble for people and should be eliminated.
He further argued that independence was the only course of action to take and that the colonists must separate themselves from the evils of a king, seek self-government, and form a new society.
While the colonists were weary of the king and chaffed under his decrees, they largely blamed the king’s ministers and viewed King George as getting bad advice from poor counselors. Paine disabused the colonist of this notion and pointed out the entire problem was having a king to start with.
His arguments provided a logical basis to consider that being independent of Britain was the only way to resolve the conflict. If people had doubts about the colonists’ end game with their relationship with Britain, Paine gave them moral authority to pursue complete separation.
But Paine’s prescription after independence was a radical government that was more populist and closer to a pure democracy. This ran counter to many of the traditional colonists who had experienced the pre-revolutionary, benign neglect from Britain and simply wanted that again. The more established colonial leadership, while willing to replace the king, wanted to maintain the structure of state centered, colonial government. Many thought that Paine went too far.
Paine’s writing continued to support the Revolution, but once it reached a favorable conclusion, Paine returned to Europe and caught the spirit of the French Revolution. In London, he advocated for the right of the people to overthrow their government. This did not sit well, and Paine was convicted of sedition. He fled to France and was instrumental in supporting that revolution too. But his writings became so radical that he was arrested and was slated for execution. Fortunately, American ambassador James Monroe intervened to save Paine from the guillotine.
Paine would return to what was now the United States, but he became wildly critical of his former friends when he realized they did not fully embrace his ideas of government. As a radical to the end, he could never find comfort with the U.S. Constitution and the stability of divided, co-equal government.
When he died, hardly anyone attended his funeral. While he was a catalyst for shedding the colonists of a king, his approach to government was so radical that he was treated with disdain in the United States, Great Britain, and France. Quite an accomplishment, but a sad ending to such an important advocate for American liberty.
GFK
Observations From The Fifth Estate 