I know, that all parsimony is of a quality approaching to unkindness; and that (on some person or other) every reform must operate as a sort of punishment.
Edmund Burke: “I know, that all parsimony is of a quality approaching to unkindness; and that (on some person or other) every reform…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke warns that frugality can be perceived as unkindness and that reforms often punish someone.
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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.
I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.
But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.
Let us add, if we please, but let us preserve what they have left; and standing on the firm ground of the British Constitution, let us be satisfied to admire, rather than attempt to follow in their desperate flights, the aëronauts of…





