When I hear the master and reason on one side, and the servant and his single and unsupported assertion on the other, my part is taken.
Edmund Burke: “When I hear the master and reason on one side, and the servant and his single and unsupported assertion on the other, my…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke contrasts the reasoning of authority with that of a subordinate, indicating his stance.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
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.
But an absurd theory on one side of a question forms no justification for alleging a false fact or promulgating mischievous maxims on the other.
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
They have little regard to the obvious consequences of their doctrine, though they may see that it leaves positive authority in very few of the positive institutions of this country.





