On the record
When, therefore, an establishment would persecute an opinion in possession, it sets against it all the powerful prejudices of human nature.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “When, therefore, an establishment would persecute an opinion in possession, it sets against it all the powerful…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke argues that when an establishment persecutes an existing opinion, it faces the inherent biases of human nature.
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Jan 1, 1790
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
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I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…
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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.
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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.
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