Edmund Burke: “But the matter is serious; and if ever the fate of the world could be truly said to depend on a particular measure, it…”

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?

Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.

Governments must be abused and deranged indeed, before it can be thought of; and the prospect of the future must be as bad as the experience of the past.

But supposing they had ranked as they ought to do, and as with us they do actually, the sides of sick-beds are not the academies for forming statesmen and legislators.