Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “It is the old bon ton of robbers, who cast their common crimes on the wickedness of their departed associates.”

On the record
It is the old bon ton of robbers, who cast their common crimes on the wickedness of their departed associates.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke critiques the tendency of criminals to blame their actions on others, highlighting moral responsibility.

Share

More from Edmund Burke

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…

gutenberg.org
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…

gutenberg.org
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.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation