He that sets his house on fire because his fingers are frost-bitten can never be a fit instructor in the method of providing our habitations with a cheerful and salutary warmth.
Edmund Burke: “He that sets his house on fire because his fingers are frost-bitten can never be a fit instructor in the method of…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke uses a metaphor to illustrate the folly of destructive actions taken in desperation.
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Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
But the course of succession is the healthy habit of the British Constitution.
A few years ago I should be ashamed to overload a matter so capable of supporting itself by the then unnecessary support of any argument; but this seditious, unconstitutional doctrine is now publicly taught, avowed, and printed.
All your sophisters cannot produce anything better adapted to preserve a rational and manly freedom than the course that we have pursued, who have chosen our nature rather than our speculations, our breasts rather than our inventions, for…





