Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: Formerly, where authority was found, wisdom and virtue were presumed.

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Formerly, where authority was found, wisdom and virtue were presumed.
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Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke notes that wisdom and virtue were once expected alongside authority.

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Jan 1, 1790

So far is it from being true that we acquired a right by the Revolution to elect our kings, that, if we had possessed it before, the English nation did at that time most solemnly renounce and abdicate it, for themselves, and for all their…

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Who could flatter himself that these men, suddenly, and as it were by enchantment, snatched from the humblest rank of subordination, would not be intoxicated with their unprepared greatness?

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The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.

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Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.

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