They think there is nothing worth pursuit, but that which they can handle, which they can measure with a two-foot rule, which they can tell upon ten fingers.
Edmund Burke: “They think there is nothing worth pursuit, but that which they can handle, which they can measure with a two-foot rule…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke highlights the materialistic mindset of some politicians, who only value what can be physically measured.
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Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.
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…
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
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.





