Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “We never said he was a tiger and a lion: no, we have said he was a weasel and a rat.”

On the record
We never said he was a tiger and a lion: no, we have said he was a weasel and a rat.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke uses animal metaphors to describe a person's character, contrasting them with more ferocious creatures.

Share

More from Edmund Burke

Jan 1, 1790

But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation