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The terrorist and the policeman both come from the same basket. Revolution, legality—counter moves in the same game; forms of idleness at bottom identical.
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“The terrorist and the policeman both come from the same basket. Revolution, legality—counter moves in the same game; forms of idleness at bottom identical.”

Joseph Conrad

Source
The Secret Agent
Date
1907
Meaning

Meaning of “The terrorist and the policeman both come from…”

The Professor collapses revolutionary violence and state policing into one contemptuous theory of power, revealing his alienated and absolutist political outlook.

Source context

Where does it come from?

The Secret Agent, Project Gutenberg #974. This is fictional dialogue spoken by the Professor, an extremist character; the novel does not present his equivalence between terrorism and policing as neutral political fact.

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ResponsibilityThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite ReflectionEthicsPoliticsPower
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“In politics we cannot keep our hands clean.”

Henry Adams · Democracy: An American Novel · 1880
Voice: Fictional character · Senator Silas Ratcliffe
Meaning & context

Ratcliffe bluntly argues that political action can involve morally compromising choices, exposing the novel’s conflict between expediency and personal integrity.

Source details

Democracy: An American Novel, represented by Project Gutenberg #2815. Senator Silas Ratcliffe says this to Madeleine Lee while defending questionable acts in his political career. It is fictional character dialogue in Adams’s political novel, not Adams speaking autobiographically or prescribing political conduct.

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If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
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“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

James Madison · Federalist No. 51 · 1788
Meaning & context

Madison uses the hypothetical contrast with angels to explain why constitutional institutions need checks on both governed people and those who exercise governmental power.

Source details

The Federalist No. 51, February 1788. The line sits inside Madison’s argument for checks and balances and institutional controls; it is political theory about constitutional design rather than a factual measurement of human nature.

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“Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of good government.”

Alexander Hamilton · Federalist No. 70 · 1788
Meaning & context

Hamilton argues that effective republican government requires an executive capable of acting with enough unity, speed and responsibility to carry laws and public duties into effect.

Source details

The Federalist No. 70, reviewed against the Gideon-edition Wikisource transcription. Hamilton's 'Energy in the executive...' sentence introduces his constitutional case for executive unity, duration, support and competent powers; it remains eighteenth-century institutional argument rather than a timeless empirical rule about government.

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The Law is what it is—a majestic edifice, sheltering all of us, each stone of which rests on another.
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“The Law is what it is—a majestic edifice, sheltering all of us, each stone of which rests on another.”

John Galsworthy · Justice · 1910
Voice: Fictional character · Mr. Justice Floyd
Meaning & context

The Judge invokes law as an interdependent institutional structure while refusing mercy to Falder, making the line part of the play’s examination of legal rigidity.

Source details

Justice, represented by Project Gutenberg #2911. Mr. Justice Floyd speaks during Falder’s sentencing. The line belongs to a dramatic judge inside Galsworthy’s social critique and should not be detached as the author’s unqualified endorsement of the sentence.

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the Government may be the Choice of a Party, for its own Ends, not of the nation for the national good.
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“the Government may be the Choice of a Party, for its own Ends, not of the nation for the national good.”

John Adams · Inaugural Address, 4 March 1797 · 1797
Meaning & context

Adams warns that corruption or manipulation of elections can substitute factional interest for the public choice an elected government is supposed to represent.

Source details

Inaugural Address, March 4, 1797, represented by Founders Online / National Archives. The clause appears in Adams’s warning about party artifice, corruption and foreign interference in elections; it remains historical presidential rhetoric rather than current election-law advice.

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The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government.
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“The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government.”

George Washington · Farewell Address, 19 September 1796 · 1796
Meaning & context

Washington grounds legitimate constitutional authority in the people’s continuing right to establish and revise their form of government.

Source details

Farewell Address, September 19, 1796, preserved by Founders Online / National Archives. The sentence appears while Washington urges respect for the Constitution and laws while affirming the people’s right to alter constitutional government. It is a historical republican argument, not present-day legal advice about amendment procedures.