Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “He first asserts, that he was possessed of an arbitrary and despotic power, restrained by no laws but his own will.”

On the record
He first asserts, that he was possessed of an arbitrary and despotic power, restrained by no laws but his own will.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke critiques Hastings for claiming absolute power without legal constraints.

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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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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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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.

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