It would as ill become me, thus called upon, to depreciate the value of a long life spent with unexampled toil in the service of my country.
Edmund Burke: “It would as ill become me, thus called upon, to depreciate the value of a long life spent with unexampled toil in the…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke asserts the importance of valuing a lifetime dedicated to public service.
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Let us add, if we please, but let us preserve what they have left; and standing on the firm ground of the British Constitution, let us be satisfied to admire, rather than attempt to follow in their desperate flights, the aëronauts of…
But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.





