For my part I have long thought that one great cause of the stability of this wretched scheme of things in France was an opinion that it could not stand, and therefore that all external measures to destroy it were wholly useless.
Burke argues that the belief in the instability of the French system ironically contributes to its endurance.
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There are some follies which baffle argument, which go beyond ridicule, and which excite no feeling in us but disgust; and therefore I say no more upon it.
It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
Never did a state, in any case, enrich itself by the confiscations of the citizens.
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.
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