Edmund Burke: “To argue that these could not be his reasons, because they were not wise, sound, and substantial, would be to suppose…”

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?

The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.

The House of Lords, for instance, is not morally competent to dissolve the House of Commons,--no, nor even to dissolve itself, nor to abdicate, if it would, its portion in the legislature of the kingdom.

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.