Instinct tells a man that he ought to revenge an injury; reason tells him that he ought not to be a judge in his own cause.
Edmund Burke: “Instinct tells a man that he ought to revenge an injury; reason tells him that he ought not to be a judge in his own…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke discusses the transition of revenge from personal to public responsibility.
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Who could doubt but that, at any expense to the state, of which they understood nothing, they must pursue their private interests, which they understood but too well?
They look upon the legal hereditary succession of their crown as among their rights, not as among their wrongs,--as a benefit, not as a grievance,--as a security for their liberty, not as a badge of servitude.
Ill would our ancestors at the Revolution have deserved their fame for wisdom, if they had found no security for their freedom, but in rendering their government feeble in its operations and precarious in its tenure,--if they had been able…
A few years ago I should be ashamed to overload a matter so capable of supporting itself by the then unnecessary support of any argument; but this seditious, unconstitutional doctrine is now publicly taught, avowed, and printed.





