They rob only to enable them to cheat; but in a very short time they defeat the ends both of the robbery and the fraud, by making out accounts for other purposes, which blow up their whole apparatus of force and of deception.
Edmund Burke: “They rob only to enable them to cheat; but in a very short time they defeat the ends both of the robbery and the fraud…”
On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
In his critique of the French Revolution, Burke condemns the Assembly's financial schemes as self-defeating acts of robbery and fraud.
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