On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
If rare merit be the rarest of all rare things, it ought to pass through some sort of probation.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Burke suggests that exceptional merit, being rare, should undergo a period of testing or probation.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
But the king of Great Britain obeys no other person; all other persons are individually, and collectively too, under him, and owe to him a legal obedience.
Jan 1, 1790
Those who are servants in name, as well as in effect, do not like to be told of their situation, their duty, and their obligations.
Jan 1, 1790
When such an unwarrantable maxim is once established, that no throne is lawful but the elective, no one act of the princes who preceded this era of fictitious election can be valid.
Jan 1, 1790
But an absurd theory on one side of a question forms no justification for alleging a false fact or promulgating mischievous maxims on the other.
Other voices in this conversation
