Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: A sure destruction impends over those infatuated princes who, in the conflict with this new and unheard-of power…

On the record
A sure destruction impends over those infatuated princes who, in the conflict with this new and unheard-of power, proceed as if they were engaged in a war that bore a resemblance to their former contests, or that they can make peace in the spirit of their former arrangements of pacification.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke cautions that rulers who underestimate the new power of the faction are heading towards their own ruin.

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