Edmund Burke: “Our streets, our lanes, our shores, the river itself, which has so long been our pride, are impeded and obstructed and…”

They threw a politic, well-wrought veil over every circumstance tending to weaken the rights which in the meliorated order of succession they meant to perpetuate, or which might furnish a precedent for any future departure from what they…

Those who are servants in name, as well as in effect, do not like to be told of their situation, their duty, and their obligations.

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.

This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction.