Whereas whatever is got by acts of absolute power ill obeyed because odious, or by contracts ill kept because constrained, will be narrow, feeble, uncertain, and precarious.
Edmund Burke: “Whereas whatever is got by acts of absolute power ill obeyed because odious, or by contracts ill kept because…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke argues that resources obtained through coercive means will be weak and unreliable compared to those gained through legitimate governance.
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As he is not to obey us, but we are to obey the law in him, our Constitution has made no sort of provision towards rendering him, as a servant, in any degree responsible.
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They threw a politic, well-wrought veil over every circumstance tending to weaken the rights which in the meliorated order of succession they meant to perpetuate, or which might furnish a precedent for any future departure from what they…
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