I must be tolerably sure, before I venture publicly to congratulate men upon a blessing, that they have really received one.
Edmund Burke: “I must be tolerably sure, before I venture publicly to congratulate men upon a blessing, that they have really received…”
Editor's note · Context
Writing on the French Revolution, Burke states his prerequisite for offering public congratulations on perceived blessings.
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The people of England will not ape the fashions they have never tried, nor go back to those which they have found mischievous on trial.
Their objects would be enlarged with their elevation; but their disposition, and habits, and mode of accomplishing their designs must remain the same.
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.
The engagement and pact of society, which generally goes by the name of the Constitution, forbids such invasion and such surrender.





