Those words were written by Edmund Burke, Irish political philosopher(January 12, 1729 -July 9, 1797), in a letter to Thomas Mercer. In 1770 he also wrote "Thoughts on the cause of the present discontents" from which the following is taken:
"When bad men combine, the good must associate else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle"
The more things change the more they stay the same. The pendulum goes nowhere. It just swings back and forth gaining no ground nor losing any. Human nature will never change. Centuries ago or today...people are the same all over the world in all times and places. If that isn't depressing I don't know what is.
