Thomas Paine was the greatest American writer in history.

He has no equal. Not even close. I'm writing a paper about him for my Western Civilization class, and the most difficult part about writing about Thomas Paine is that I can't decide which parts *NOT* to quote. Virtually every sentence from every book he ever published is rich with vigor and purpose and force, and I'm afraid if I don't just flip a coin for every sentence of his that I read, it will become a 500 page paper.