Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.”

On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

In his critique of the French Revolution, this aphorism describes the dangerous dynamic that emerges when subjects rebel on principle.

Share

More from Edmund Burke

Jan 1, 1790

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

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

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

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

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.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

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.

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation