Edmund Burke: “It was not to passive principles in our ancestors that we owe the honor of appearing before a sovereign who cannot feel…”

Those who are servants in name, as well as in effect, do not like to be told of their situation, their duty, and their obligations.

By adhering in this manner and on those principles to our forefathers, we are guided, not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic analogy.

This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction.

Who could doubt but that, at any expense to the state, of which they understood nothing, they must pursue their private interests, which they understood but too well?