Power and authority are sometimes bought by kindness; but they can never be begged as alms by an impoverished and defeated violence.
Edmund Burke: “Power and authority are sometimes bought by kindness; but they can never be begged as alms by an impoverished and…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke asserts that power gained through kindness cannot be obtained through violence or desperation.
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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.
Governments must be abused and deranged indeed, before it can be thought of; and the prospect of the future must be as bad as the experience of the past.
The engagement and pact of society, which generally goes by the name of the Constitution, forbids such invasion and such surrender.
They look upon the legal hereditary succession of their crown as among their rights, not as among their wrongs,--as a benefit, not as a grievance,--as a security for their liberty, not as a badge of servitude.





