On the record
If the vilest of mankind are resolved to be the most wicked, they lose all the baseness of their origin, and take their place above kings.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “If the vilest of mankind are resolved to be the most wicked, they lose all the baseness of their origin, and take their…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke asserts that the most wicked individuals can elevate themselves above kings, challenging traditional hierarchies.
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More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
They look upon the legal hereditary succession of their crown as among their rights, not as among their wrongs,--as a benefit, not as a grievance,--as a security for their liberty, not as a badge of servitude.
Jan 1, 1790
If all the absurd theories of lawyers and divines were to vitiate the objects in which they are conversant, we should have no law and no religion left in the world.
Jan 1, 1790
Always acting as if in the presence of canonized forefathers, the spirit of freedom, leading in itself to misrule and excess, is tempered with an awful gravity.
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