What is true of a robber is true of a rebel; and what is true of one robber or rebel is as true, and it is a much more important truth, of one hundred thousand.
Edmund Burke: “What is true of a robber is true of a rebel; and what is true of one robber or rebel is as true, and it is a much more…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke draws a parallel between robbers and rebels, emphasizing the moral equivalence in their actions.
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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.
They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.
Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…





