Quote by Thomas Paine: “These are the times that try men's souls.”

Crisis reveals who people really are. Paine wrote this to galvanize soldiers losing heart in the darkest moment of the American Revolution — but the line has outlasted its moment because every generation faces a point where holding on feels impossible and character is tested to its limit.

Paine wrote The American Crisis in December 1776, when the Continental Army was in retreat and facing devastating losses. General Washington had it read aloud to troops at Valley Forge to sustain morale during one of the Revolution's darkest periods.

English-born American political activist, philosopher, and revolutionary whose pamphlets Common Sense and The American Crisis were hugely influential in building support for American independence. He later supported the French Revolution and wrote The Age of Reason.