He would persuade you that their sufferings are much assuaged by their being nothing new,--and that, having no right to property, to liberty, to honor, or to life, they must be more pleased with the little that is left to them than grieved for the much that has been ravished from them by his cruelty and his avarice.
Edmund Burke: “He would persuade you that their sufferings are much assuaged by their being nothing new,--and that, having no right to…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke critiques the notion that people can be content without rights or property, highlighting the cruelty of such a belief.
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