On the record
Its greatest favorers love it better in the abstract than in the substance.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “Its greatest favorers love it better in the abstract than in the substance.”
Editor's note · Context
Burke comments on how supporters of reform may prefer the idea over its actual implementation.
Share
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…
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.
Jan 1, 1790
Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.
Jan 1, 1790
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…
Other voices in this conversation
