In my opinion, we ought not to wait for the fruitless instruction of calamity to inquire into the abuses which bring upon us ruin in the worst of its forms, in the loss of our fame and virtue.
Edmund Burke: “In my opinion, we ought not to wait for the fruitless instruction of calamity to inquire into the abuses which bring…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke argues for proactive inquiry into abuses before calamity strikes.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
Ill would our ancestors at the Revolution have deserved their fame for wisdom, if they had found no security for their freedom, but in rendering their government feeble in its operations and precarious in its tenure,--if they had been able…
The engagement and pact of society, which generally goes by the name of the Constitution, forbids such invasion and such surrender.
But the course of succession is the healthy habit of the British Constitution.
All your sophisters cannot produce anything better adapted to preserve a rational and manly freedom than the course that we have pursued, who have chosen our nature rather than our speculations, our breasts rather than our inventions, for…





