Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “From this temper, men and factions, and nations too, have sacrificed the good of which they had been in assured…”

On the record
From this temper, men and factions, and nations too, have sacrificed the good of which they had been in assured possession, in favor of wild and irrational expectations.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke observes that people often sacrifice their current well-being for unrealistic expectations of the future.

Share

More from Edmund Burke

Jan 1, 1790

I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.

gutenberg.org
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…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.

gutenberg.org
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.

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation