You have no reason to judge of them otherwise than by the specimen: for how can you judge of what is lost but from what remains?
Edmund Burke: “You have no reason to judge of them otherwise than by the specimen: for how can you judge of what is lost but from what…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke discusses the limitations of judgment based on incomplete information.
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More from Edmund Burke
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.
Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.





