Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “There the European conqueror finds a cruel defeat in the very fruits of his success.”

On the record
There the European conqueror finds a cruel defeat in the very fruits of his success.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke notes that even victories can lead to unforeseen consequences that undermine the conqueror's success.

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More from Edmund Burke

Jan 1, 1790

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…

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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.

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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.

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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…

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