Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “It would have been natural that, rising in the fulness of their might, insulted majesty, despised dignity, violated…”

On the record
It would have been natural that, rising in the fulness of their might, insulted majesty, despised dignity, violated justice, rejected supplication, patience goaded into fury, would have poured out all the length of the reins upon all the wrath which they had so long restrained.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke reflects on the potential consequences of unchecked power and the fury that can arise from long-restrained emotions.

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Jan 1, 1790

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…

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Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.

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

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I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…

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