It often happens that the very oppressors and persecutors themselves are forced to bear testimony in its favor.
Edmund Burke: “It often happens that the very oppressors and persecutors themselves are forced to bear testimony in its favor.”
Editor's note · Context
Burke notes that even oppressors can inadvertently support the cause of virtue they oppose.
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I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.
They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
Not being illuminated with the light of which the gentlemen of France tell us they have got so abundant a share, they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance and fallibility of mankind.





