Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: Such a stretch and abuse of power would, indeed, not only savor of the assumption of sovereignty, but of arbitrary and…

On the record
Such a stretch and abuse of power would, indeed, not only savor of the assumption of sovereignty, but of arbitrary and oppressive despotism.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke warns against the dangers of excessive power leading to tyranny.

Share

More from Edmund Burke

Jan 1, 1790

But the course of succession is the healthy habit of the British Constitution.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

Who could conceive that men who are habitually meddling, daring, subtle, active, of litigious dispositions and unquiet minds, would easily fall back into their old condition of obscure contention, and laborious, low, and unprofitable…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

But supposing they had ranked as they ought to do, and as with us they do actually, the sides of sick-beds are not the academies for forming statesmen and legislators.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

Ill would our ancestors at the Revolution have deserved their fame for wisdom, if they had found no security for their freedom, but in rendering their government feeble in its operations and precarious in its tenure,--if they had been able…

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation