Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: When any political institution is praised, in spite of great and prominent faults of every kind, and in all its parts…

On the record
When any political institution is praised, in spite of great and prominent faults of every kind, and in all its parts, it must be supposed to have something excellent in its fundamental principles.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke suggests that even flawed political institutions can possess excellent foundational principles.

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Jan 1, 1790

It was not made to entice the smell of a mole, nuzzling and burying himself in his mother earth, as yours is.

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Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.

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If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.

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But what is liberty without wisdom and without virtue?

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