Political Quotes

On the record
No, my Lords, this arbitrary power is not to be had by conquest.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke argues that arbitrary power cannot be legitimately acquired through conquest, highlighting the moral limits of power.

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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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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.

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The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.

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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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