On the record
But the practice and knowledge of the world will not suffer us to be ignorant that the Constitution on paper is one thing, and in fact and experience is another.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “But the practice and knowledge of the world will not suffer us to be ignorant that the Constitution on paper is one…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke emphasizes the difference between the theoretical Constitution and its practical application in society.
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More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
No experience has taught us that in any other course or method than that of an hereditary crown our liberties can be regularly perpetuated and preserved sacred as our hereditary right.
Jan 1, 1790
The House of Lords, for instance, is not morally competent to dissolve the House of Commons,--no, nor even to dissolve itself, nor to abdicate, if it would, its portion in the legislature of the kingdom.
Jan 1, 1790
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.
Jan 1, 1790
A few years ago I should be ashamed to overload a matter so capable of supporting itself by the then unnecessary support of any argument; but this seditious, unconstitutional doctrine is now publicly taught, avowed, and printed.
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