The whole is in the same strain, full of false philosophy and false rhetoric,--both, however, calculated to captivate and influence the vulgar mind, and to excite sedition in the countries in which it is ordered to be circulated.
Edmund Burke: “The whole is in the same strain, full of false philosophy and false rhetoric,--both, however, calculated to captivate…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke critiques the misleading nature of revolutionary rhetoric that aims to incite the masses.
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Who could doubt but that, at any expense to the state, of which they understood nothing, they must pursue their private interests, which they understood but too well?
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They have little regard to the obvious consequences of their doctrine, though they may see that it leaves positive authority in very few of the positive institutions of this country.
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