I have expressed myself ill, if I have given you cause to imagine that I prefer the conduct of those who have retired from this warfare to your behavior, who, with a courage and constancy almost supernatural, have struggled against tyranny, and kept the field to the last.
Edmund Burke: “I have expressed myself ill, if I have given you cause to imagine that I prefer the conduct of those who have retired…”
On the record
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Burke expresses his admiration for those who bravely resisted tyranny, contrasting them with others who withdrew.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.
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…
Jan 1, 1790
But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.
Jan 1, 1790
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.





