On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
We shall never be such fools as to call in an enemy to the substance of any system to remove its corruptions, to supply its defects, or to perfect its construction.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “We shall never be such fools as to call in an enemy to the substance of any system to remove its corruptions, to supply…”
Editor's note · Context
From his critique of the French Revolution, Burke argues against inviting radical opponents to reform existing institutions.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
Ill would our ancestors at the Revolution have deserved their fame for wisdom, if they had found no security for their freedom, but in rendering their government feeble in its operations and precarious in its tenure,--if they had been able…
Jan 1, 1790
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.
Jan 1, 1790
Do they mean to attaint and disable backwards all the kings that have reigned before the Revolution, and consequently to stain the throne of England with the blot of a continual usurpation?
Jan 1, 1790
But an absurd theory on one side of a question forms no justification for alleging a false fact or promulgating mischievous maxims on the other.
Other voices in this conversation
