Political Quotes

On the record
I say he is destitute of the first character of sovereign power: he cannot lay a tax upon his people.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke argues that a ruler lacking the power to tax cannot be considered a true sovereign, emphasizing the importance of fiscal authority.

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

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Who could flatter himself that these men, suddenly, and as it were by enchantment, snatched from the humblest rank of subordination, would not be intoxicated with their unprepared greatness?

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Governments must be abused and deranged indeed, before it can be thought of; and the prospect of the future must be as bad as the experience of the past.

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