On the record
Taking for my basis that I had an incurable evil to deal with, I cast about how I should make it as small an evil as possible, and draw out of it some collateral good.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “Taking for my basis that I had an incurable evil to deal with, I cast about how I should make it as small an evil as…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke discusses the need to minimize the evils of the slave trade while seeking some collateral benefits.
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More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
They look upon the legal hereditary succession of their crown as among their rights, not as among their wrongs,--as a benefit, not as a grievance,--as a security for their liberty, not as a badge of servitude.
Jan 1, 1790
The people of England will not ape the fashions they have never tried, nor go back to those which they have found mischievous on trial.
Jan 1, 1790
No experience has taught us that in any other course or method than that of an hereditary crown our liberties can be regularly perpetuated and preserved sacred as our hereditary right.
Jan 1, 1790
Unquestionably there was at the Revolution, in the person of King William, a small and a temporary deviation from the strict order of a regular hereditary succession; but it is against all genuine principles of jurisprudence to draw a…
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