On the record
When the poor rise to destroy the rich, they act as wisely for their own purposes as when they burn mills and throw corn into the river to make bread cheap.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “When the poor rise to destroy the rich, they act as wisely for their own purposes as when they burn mills and throw corn…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke warns that the poor's attempts to destroy the rich are misguided and counterproductive, akin to self-sabotage.
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Jan 1, 1790
Every honest mind, every true lover of liberty and humanity, must rejoice to find that injustice is not always good policy, nor rapine the high-road to riches.
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It is an evil inevitably attendant on the dominion of sovereign democratic republics.
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Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
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