Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: Distrust is good, or it is bad, according to our position and our purpose.

On the record
Distrust is good, or it is bad, according to our position and our purpose.
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Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke reflects on the nature of distrust and its varying significance based on circumstances.

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Jan 1, 1790

This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction.

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Always acting as if in the presence of canonized forefathers, the spirit of freedom, leading in itself to misrule and excess, is tempered with an awful gravity.

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