Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “It was a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and…”

On the record
It was a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and degradation of a people, and the debasement, in them, of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke critiques a system he views as expertly designed for oppression and degradation.

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Jan 1, 1790

Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.

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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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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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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…

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