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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Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…
Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.





