I do not pretend to know France as correctly as some others; but I have endeavored through my whole life to make myself acquainted with human nature,--otherwise I should be unfit to take even my humble part in the service of mankind.
In his critique of the French Revolution, Burke asserts the lifelong importance of studying human nature as a prerequisite for public service.
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Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
This is the spirit of our Constitution, not only in its settled course, but in all its revolutions.
Ill would our ancestors at the Revolution have deserved their fame for wisdom, if they had found no security for their freedom, but in rendering their government feeble in its operations and precarious in its tenure,--if they had been able…
But the king of Great Britain obeys no other person; all other persons are individually, and collectively too, under him, and owe to him a legal obedience.
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