Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: I think it impossible that any king, when he has recovered his first terrors, can cordially infuse vivacity and vigor…

On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
I think it impossible that any king, when he has recovered his first terrors, can cordially infuse vivacity and vigor into measures which he knows to be dictated by those who, he must be persuaded, are in the highest degree ill affected to his person.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke reflects on the psychological impossibility of a monarch sincerely supporting policies dictated by those hostile to him.

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