On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
It is no soothing news to my ears, that great bodies of men are incurably corrupt.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “It is no soothing news to my ears, that great bodies of men are incurably corrupt.”
Editor's note · Context
In his critique of the French Revolution, Burke expresses his disbelief in the notion that large groups of people are inherently and irredeemably corrupt.
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More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.
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We procure reverence to our civil institutions on the principle upon which Nature teaches us to revere individual men: on account of their age, and on account of those from whom they are descended.
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Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.
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The House of Lords, for instance, is not morally competent to dissolve the House of Commons,--no, nor even to dissolve itself, nor to abdicate, if it would, its portion in the legislature of the kingdom.
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