On the record
Which of them has told you that this would not be the first and favorite use of any power they should get?
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgWhich of them has told you that this would not be the first and favorite use of any power they should get?
Burke warns that the first action of those gaining power may be to undermine the Church.
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More from Edmund Burke
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.
They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.
Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.