Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: His extortion is not like the generous rapacity of the princely eagle, who snatches away the living, struggling prey; he…

On the record
His extortion is not like the generous rapacity of the princely eagle, who snatches away the living, struggling prey; he is a vulture, who feeds upon the prostrate, the dying, and the dead.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke uses a vivid metaphor to describe a corrupt leader's predatory nature.

Share

More from Edmund Burke

Jan 1, 1790

Who could conceive that men who are habitually meddling, daring, subtle, active, of litigious dispositions and unquiet minds, would easily fall back into their old condition of obscure contention, and laborious, low, and unprofitable…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

The House of Lords, for instance, is not morally competent to dissolve the House of Commons,--no, nor even to dissolve itself, nor to abdicate, if it would, its portion in the legislature of the kingdom.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

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

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

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.

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation