“Strange incongruities must ever perplex those, who confound the unhappiness of civil dissensions with the crime of treason.”

— Edmund Burke

Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (1777)

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Edmund Burke 270

Anglo-Irish statesman 1729–1797

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“As Arendt pointed out, we must trust only those who have this self-awareness. This self-awareness comes only through consciousness. It comes with the ability to look at a crime being committed and say “I can’t.” We must fear, Arendt warned, those whose moral system is built around the flimsy structure of blind obedience. We must fear those who cannot think.”

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“Strange incongruities must ever perplex those, who confound the unhappiness of civil dissensions with the crime of treason.”

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Edmund Burke 270

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