Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “The people are the natural control on authority; but to exercise and to control together is contradictory and…”

On the record
The people are the natural control on authority; but to exercise and to control together is contradictory and impossible.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke claims that the people serve as a natural check on authority, but cannot do both exercise and control power simultaneously.

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Jan 1, 1790

Not being illuminated with the light of which the gentlemen of France tell us they have got so abundant a share, they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance and fallibility of mankind.

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I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.

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I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…

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