Edmund Burke: “It is ridiculous to say we are not men, and that, as men, we shall never wish to aggrandize ourselves in some way or…”

Governments must be abused and deranged indeed, before it can be thought of; and the prospect of the future must be as bad as the experience of the past.

When such an unwarrantable maxim is once established, that no throne is lawful but the elective, no one act of the princes who preceded this era of fictitious election can be valid.

Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.

Their objects would be enlarged with their elevation; but their disposition, and habits, and mode of accomplishing their designs must remain the same.