To all th[e] champions of the oppressed he set an example of courage, humanity, and single-mindedness. When public issues were involved, he forgot personal prudence. The world decided, as it usually does in such cases, to punish him for his lack of self-seeking; to this day his fame is less than it would have been if his character had been less generous.

Bertrand Russell, ‘The Fate of Thomas Paine’, in Why I am not a Christian, London, 1957, p. 147