It is in the power of government to prevent much evil; it can do very little positive good in this, or perhaps in anything else.
Edmund Burke: “It is in the power of government to prevent much evil; it can do very little positive good in this, or perhaps in…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke reflects on the limited capacity of government to enact positive change, despite its ability to prevent harm.
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The prattling about the rights of men will not be accepted in payment of a biscuit or a pound of gunpowder.
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The body of the people must not find the principles of natural subordination by art rooted out of their minds.
I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…





