The prattling about the rights of men will not be accepted in payment of a biscuit or a pound of gunpowder.
Edmund Burke: “The prattling about the rights of men will not be accepted in payment of a biscuit or a pound of gunpowder.”
Editor's note · Context
Critiquing the abstract declarations of the French Revolution, Burke asserts that theoretical "rights of men" are useless in addressing practical needs like food or defense.
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They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.
They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.
Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.





