My Lords, systems never make mankind happy or unhappy, any further than as they give occasions for wicked men to exercise their own abominable talents, subservient to their own more abominable dispositions.
Burke reflects on the impact of governance on human happiness, emphasizing the role of individuals in perpetuating evil systems.
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More from Edmund Burke
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…
The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.
But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.
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.
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