A statesman differs from a professor in an university: the latter has only the general view of society; the former, the statesman, has a number of circumstances to combine with those general ideas, and to take into his consideration.
Burke distinguishes between the roles of a statesman and a professor, emphasizing the need for practical application of ideas in governance.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
This was reserved to our time, to quench the little glimmerings of reason which might break in upon the solid darkness of this enlightened age.
Let us add, if we please, but let us preserve what they have left; and standing on the firm ground of the British Constitution, let us be satisfied to admire, rather than attempt to follow in their desperate flights, the aëronauts of…
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 have not more notes in their song than the cuckoo; though, far from the softness of that harbinger of summer and plenty, their voice is as harsh and as ominous as that of the raven.
Other voices in this conversation
