But it seems as if it were the prevalent opinion in Paris, that an unfeeling heart and an undoubting confidence are the sole qualifications for a perfect legislator.
Edmund Burke: “But it seems as if it were the prevalent opinion in Paris, that an unfeeling heart and an undoubting confidence are the…”
Editor's note · Context
In his critique of the French Revolution, Burke observes the prevailing view in Paris that a legislator's only necessary qualities are a lack of emotion and absolute self-assurance.
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I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
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…
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.





