This tract in the Southern Tier of New York is my home country -- born in Olean, lived many years in Allegany County -- divorced from County Court in Belmont, and won custody of my children there.
In the adjoining counties, Steuben, Allegany, and Cattaraugus I learned the meaning of arms-bought liberty, continued by proper use of both. But the quote above, purported to be Santayana's, was originated by the Irish-born Anglican Edmund Burke (1729-1797), worthy of closer examination; a contemporary , co-religionist, and supporter of George Washington; and IMHO a greater man than the one who claimed that they were in those "... times that try men's souls ..." (Thomas Paine).
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A few of Burke's quotes:
Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
is for good men to do nothing.
When bad men combine, the good must associate;
else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice
in a contemptible struggle.
But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue?
It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is
folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
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Let us be like-minded, now; and persuade others as did Burke.
Like mindedness absent action is of no value......bert