Source identified1
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Read & copy
“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.”
Meaning & context
The Professor collapses revolutionary violence and state policing into one contemptuous theory of power, revealing his alienated and absolutist political outlook.
Source details
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.