The whole has emanated from the simplicity of our national character, and from a sort of native plainness and directness of understanding, which for a long time characterized those men who have successively obtained authority among us.
Edmund Burke: “The whole has emanated from the simplicity of our national character, and from a sort of native plainness and directness…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke reflects on the simplicity and directness of the national character that has shaped leadership.
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The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.
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.
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.
Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.





