On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
Against these their rights of men let no government look for security in the length of its continuance, or in the justice and lenity of its administration.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “Against these their rights of men let no government look for security in the length of its continuance, or in the…”
Editor's note · Context
Critiquing the abstract "rights of men" proclaimed by French revolutionaries, Burke warns that these ideas threaten even long-established and just governments.
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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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They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
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