On the record
The Constitution is made by those things, and for those things: without them it cannot exist; and without them it is no matter whether it exists or not.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “The Constitution is made by those things, and for those things: without them it cannot exist; and without them it is no…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke argues that the Constitution is dependent on core societal values and cannot exist without them.
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More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
They look on the frame of their commonwealth, such as it stands, to be of inestimable value; and they conceive the undisturbed succession of the crown to be a pledge of the stability and perpetuity of all the other members of our…
Jan 1, 1790
If kings who did not owe their crown to the choice of their people had no title to make laws, what will become of the statute De tallagio non concedendo? of the Petition of Right? of the act of Habeas Corpus?
Jan 1, 1790
No experience has taught us that in any other course or method than that of an hereditary crown our liberties can be regularly perpetuated and preserved sacred as our hereditary right.
Jan 1, 1790
The engagement and pact of society, which generally goes by the name of the Constitution, forbids such invasion and such surrender.
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