Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “These principles of the opposition are the only thing which preserves a single symptom of life in the nation.”

On the record
These principles of the opposition are the only thing which preserves a single symptom of life in the nation.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke claims that the principles of the opposition are vital for maintaining any semblance of life in the nation.

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More from Edmund Burke

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…

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Jan 1, 1790

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…

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Jan 1, 1790

They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.

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Jan 1, 1790

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.

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