A principle totally different from the equality of men, and utterly irreconcilable to it, is thereby admitted: but no sooner is this principle admitted than (as usual) it is subverted; and it is not subverted (as we shall presently see) to approximate the inequality of riches to the level of Nature.
From his critique of the French Revolution, on the revolutionaries' inconsistent application of principles regarding the equality of men and the subversion of their own stated ideals.
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More from Edmund Burke
We procure reverence to our civil institutions on the principle upon which Nature teaches us to revere individual men: on account of their age, and on account of those from whom they are descended.
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.
No experience has taught us that in any other course or method than that of an hereditary crown our liberties can be regularly perpetuated and preserved sacred as our hereditary right.
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