These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly:—’Tis dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.
These words don’t need much commentary, but they mean even more if you know the circumstances in which they were written. The writer was Thomas Paine, the author of Common Sense; the place was Philadelphia; the time was December 1776, when things were looking bleaker for the American revolutionaries than they ever had since the beginning of the war. The British and Hessian forces had beaten them badly, again and again, forcing them to retreat out of New York, through New Jersey, and into Pennsylvania. Winter came on, which was helpful in a way, because armies in the 18th century generally suspended operations until spring; but then the Americans had a new enemy — the winter itself — and they were poorly equipped to deal with it.
Paine had been with the army while they were retreating across New Jersey, so he knew what things were really like, and he knew they were at a crisis. He wrote a new pamphlet, titled The American Crisis, and began it with the words quoted above. Now, 244 years later, his words are just as applicable as they were then.