Political Quotes

On the record
My Lords, the East India Company have not arbitrary power to give him; the king has no arbitrary power to give him; your Lordships have not; nor the Commons, nor the whole legislature.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke argues that no entity has the right to grant arbitrary power, emphasizing its illegitimacy.

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More from Edmund Burke

Jan 1, 1790

But an absurd theory on one side of a question forms no justification for alleging a false fact or promulgating mischievous maxims on the other.

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By adhering in this manner and on those principles to our forefathers, we are guided, not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by the spirit of philosophic analogy.

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The people of England will not ape the fashions they have never tried, nor go back to those which they have found mischievous on trial.

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