Edmund Burke: “But, wishing, as I do, the change to be gradual and cautious, I would, in my first steps, lean rather to the side of…”

Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.

Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.

I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.

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.