Show the thing you contend for to be reason, show it to be common sense, show it to be the means of attaining some useful end, and then I am content to allow it what dignity you please.
Edmund Burke: “Show the thing you contend for to be reason, show it to be common sense, show it to be the means of attaining some…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke calls for rational justification for actions, emphasizing the importance of reason and common sense.
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Let us add, if we please, but let us preserve what they have left; and standing on the firm ground of the British Constitution, let us be satisfied to admire, rather than attempt to follow in their desperate flights, the aëronauts of…
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
Not being illuminated with the light of which the gentlemen of France tell us they have got so abundant a share, they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance and fallibility of mankind.
Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.





