On the record
But this last act of infidelity and murder is to expiate all the rest, and to qualify them for the amity of an humane and virtuous sovereign and civilized people.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “But this last act of infidelity and murder is to expiate all the rest, and to qualify them for the amity of an humane…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke criticizes the notion that a single act of violence can absolve a history of wrongdoing, emphasizing the absurdity of such beliefs.
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More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
But the king of Great Britain obeys no other person; all other persons are individually, and collectively too, under him, and owe to him a legal obedience.
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
Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.
Jan 1, 1790
The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.
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