On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
At once to preserve and to reform is quite another thing.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “At once to preserve and to reform is quite another thing.”
Editor's note · Context
In his critique of the French Revolution, Burke distinguishes between radical change and the careful process of maintaining existing institutions while improving them.
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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…
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I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.
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