Political Quotes

On the record
Despotic governments are jealous, and the subjects prone to rebellion.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke reflects on the nature of despotism and its impact on governance and society.

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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.

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Jan 1, 1790

The people of England will not ape the fashions they have never tried, nor go back to those which they have found mischievous on trial.

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Jan 1, 1790

All your sophisters cannot produce anything better adapted to preserve a rational and manly freedom than the course that we have pursued, who have chosen our nature rather than our speculations, our breasts rather than our inventions, for…

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Jan 1, 1790

Unquestionably there was at the Revolution, in the person of King William, a small and a temporary deviation from the strict order of a regular hereditary succession; but it is against all genuine principles of jurisprudence to draw a…

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