The service of the public is a thing which cannot be put to auction and struck down to those who will agree to execute it the cheapest.
Edmund Burke: “The service of the public is a thing which cannot be put to auction and struck down to those who will agree to execute…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke argues that public service should not be treated as a commodity, emphasizing its intrinsic value.
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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.
Not being illuminated with the light of which the gentlemen of France tell us they have got so abundant a share, they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance and fallibility of mankind.
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.





