Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “This is to make the success of villany the standard of innocence.”

On the record
This is to make the success of villany the standard of innocence.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke argues that allowing the success of wrongdoing to define innocence undermines justice.

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More from Edmund Burke

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…

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Jan 1, 1790

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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Jan 1, 1790

They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.

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Jan 1, 1790

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.

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