He is not affected by the reality of distress touching his heart, but by the showy resemblance of it striking his imagination.
Thomas Paine: “He is not affected by the reality of distress touching his heart, but by the showy resemblance of it striking his…”
Editor's note · Context
In his critique of Edmund Burke's response to the French Revolution, Paine observes the superficiality of those moved by spectacle rather than genuine suffering.
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Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infinitely more advantage, than any victory with all its expense.
The present age will hereafter merit to be called the Age of Reason, and the present generation will appear to the future as the Adam of a new world.
But in England there are no such occasional bodies; and as to those who are now called Representatives, a great part of them are mere machines of the court, placemen, and dependants.
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