On the record
As the wisdom of men mates such institutions, the folly of men destroys them.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgAs the wisdom of men mates such institutions, the folly of men destroys them.
Burke reflects on the relationship between wisdom and folly in the maintenance of institutions.
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The House of Lords, for instance, is not morally competent to dissolve the House of Commons,--no, nor even to dissolve itself, nor to abdicate, if it would, its portion in the legislature of the kingdom.
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.
The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.