Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: The spirit of ambition had taken possession of this class as violently as ever it had done of any other.

On the record
The spirit of ambition had taken possession of this class as violently as ever it had done of any other.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke describes the ambition of the middle class as a powerful force.

Share

More from Edmund Burke

Jan 1, 1790

They threw a politic, well-wrought veil over every circumstance tending to weaken the rights which in the meliorated order of succession they meant to perpetuate, or which might furnish a precedent for any future departure from what they…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

But supposing they had ranked as they ought to do, and as with us they do actually, the sides of sick-beds are not the academies for forming statesmen and legislators.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation