Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “But who shall judge if the king be dethroned lawfully or by violence?”

On the record
But who shall judge if the king be dethroned lawfully or by violence?
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke raises the question of who has the authority to determine the legitimacy of a king's dethronement.

Share

More from Edmund Burke

Jan 1, 1790

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.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

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…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation