Never before this time was a set of literary men converted into a gang of robbers and assassins; never before did a den of bravoes and banditti assume the garb and tone of an academy of philosophers.
Edmund Burke: “Never before this time was a set of literary men converted into a gang of robbers and assassins; never before did a den…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke condemns the transformation of intellectuals into violent revolutionaries during the French Revolution.
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Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.
Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.
He that does this is the cruel oppressor, the merciless enemy of the poor and wretched; at the same time that by his wicked speculations he exposes the fruits of successful industry and the accumulations of fortune to the plunder of the…
It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.





