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
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…
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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.
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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.
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