On the record
But still an injury is not always a reason for retaliation; nor is the folly of others with regard to us a reason for imitating it with regard to them.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “But still an injury is not always a reason for retaliation; nor is the folly of others with regard to us a reason for…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke advises against retaliation, emphasizing that responding to folly with folly is unwise.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
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.
Jan 1, 1790
Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.
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
Who could flatter himself that these men, suddenly, and as it were by enchantment, snatched from the humblest rank of subordination, would not be intoxicated with their unprepared greatness?
Other voices in this conversation
