Now do you believe, in the first place, that men will long have abilities, will long have good intentions, and will long, above all, have steady application, when they know they are but tools in the hands of another,--when they know they are tools for his own corrupt purposes?
Edmund Burke: “Now do you believe, in the first place, that men will long have abilities, will long have good intentions, and will…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke emphasizes the detrimental effects of being perceived as a mere tool for corrupt purposes on individuals' abilities and intentions.
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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.
The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.
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.
As he is not to obey us, but we are to obey the law in him, our Constitution has made no sort of provision towards rendering him, as a servant, in any degree responsible.





