On the record
We are sensible that all men, and without any evil intentions, will naturally wish to extend their own jurisdiction, and to weaken all the power by which they may be limited and controlled.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “We are sensible that all men, and without any evil intentions, will naturally wish to extend their own jurisdiction, and…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke observes that individuals tend to seek more power while diminishing the limits placed upon them.
Share
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
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.
Jan 1, 1790
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.
Jan 1, 1790
Unquestionably there was at the Revolution, in the person of King William, a small and a temporary deviation from the strict order of a regular hereditary succession; but it is against all genuine principles of jurisprudence to draw a…
Other voices in this conversation
