It makes our weakness subservient to our virtue; it grafts benevolence even upon avarice.
Edmund Burke: “It makes our weakness subservient to our virtue; it grafts benevolence even upon avarice.”
Editor's note · Context
Discussing the benefits of inherited property, Burke suggests it can channel human flaws like avarice towards virtuous outcomes like benevolence.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.
Not being illuminated with the light of which the gentlemen of France tell us they have got so abundant a share, they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance and fallibility of mankind.
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.





