It is not the beneficence of the laws, it is the unnatural temper which beneficence can fret and sour, that is to be lamented.
Edmund Burke: “It is not the beneficence of the laws, it is the unnatural temper which beneficence can fret and sour, that is to be…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke laments the negative effects of a sour disposition on the beneficence of laws.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
Not being illuminated with the light of which the gentlemen of France tell us they have got so abundant a share, they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance and fallibility of mankind.
I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.





