On the record
A man desires a sword: why should he be refused?
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgA man desires a sword: why should he be refused?
Burke questions the rationale behind denying a man a sword, symbolizing the right to self-defense.
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This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.
If all the absurd theories of lawyers and divines were to vitiate the objects in which they are conversant, we should have no law and no religion left in the world.
Those who are servants in name, as well as in effect, do not like to be told of their situation, their duty, and their obligations.
When such an unwarrantable maxim is once established, that no throne is lawful but the elective, no one act of the princes who preceded this era of fictitious election can be valid.