I do not mean, Sir, to commend the superior morality of this sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue in it; but I cannot alter the nature of man.
Edmund Burke: “I do not mean, Sir, to commend the superior morality of this sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue in…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke acknowledges the complexity of human nature, noting that pride can coexist with virtue in sentiments about liberty.
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They have little regard to the obvious consequences of their doctrine, though they may see that it leaves positive authority in very few of the positive institutions of this country.
Who could doubt but that, at any expense to the state, of which they understood nothing, they must pursue their private interests, which they understood but too well?
The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.
The people of England will not ape the fashions they have never tried, nor go back to those which they have found mischievous on trial.





