The more forcibly I drive my arguments against their system, so as to make an impression where I wish to make it, the more strongly I rivet them in their sentiments.
Edmund Burke: “The more forcibly I drive my arguments against their system, so as to make an impression where I wish to make it, the…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke argues that strong counterarguments can inadvertently reinforce the beliefs of those he opposes.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
But supposing they had ranked as they ought to do, and as with us they do actually, the sides of sick-beds are not the academies for forming statesmen and legislators.
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
By adhering in this manner and on those principles to our forefathers, we are guided, not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic analogy.
Who could conceive that men who are habitually meddling, daring, subtle, active, of litigious dispositions and unquiet minds, would easily fall back into their old condition of obscure contention, and laborious, low, and unprofitable…





