Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: Corporate bodies are immortal for the good of the members, but not for their punishment.

On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
Corporate bodies are immortal for the good of the members, but not for their punishment.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Arguing against the dissolution and punishment of corporate bodies like the church during the French Revolution, Burke states a principle about their enduring purpose.

Share

More from Edmund Burke

Jan 1, 1790

They look on the frame of their commonwealth, such as it stands, to be of inestimable value; and they conceive the undisturbed succession of the crown to be a pledge of the stability and perpetuity of all the other members of our…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

By adhering in this manner and on those principles to our forefathers, we are guided, not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic analogy.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

But supposing they had ranked as they ought to do, and as with us they do actually, the sides of sick-beds are not the academies for forming statesmen and legislators.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

No experience has taught us that in any other course or method than that of an hereditary crown our liberties can be regularly perpetuated and preserved sacred as our hereditary right.

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation