On the recordJanuary 1, 1791
Measures which at other times it would censure it now approves, and acts persuasion upon itself to suffocate its judgment.
Said by
Thomas Paine
Source
gutenberg.orgMeasures which at other times it would censure it now approves, and acts persuasion upon itself to suffocate its judgment.
In "Rights of Man," Paine describes how a nation, once committed to a course, can persuade itself to approve actions it would normally condemn.
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The Aristocracy had hitherto opposed the despotism of the Court, and affected the language of patriotism; but it opposed it as its rival (as the English Barons opposed King John) and it now opposed the nation from the same motives.
It was a sort of new form of government that insensibly served to put the old one out of sight and to unhinge it from the superstitious authority of antiquity.
The aristocracy has screened itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost equilibrium.