On the record
If they please, they are more powerful advocates against themselves than a thousand scribblers like me can be in their favor.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “If they please, they are more powerful advocates against themselves than a thousand scribblers like me can be in their…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke suggests that the peers themselves can undermine their own arguments more effectively than his critiques.
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Jan 1, 1790
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
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…
Jan 1, 1790
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.
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Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
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