Where two motives, neither of them perfectly justifiable, may be assigned, the worst has the chance of being preferred.
Edmund Burke: “Where two motives, neither of them perfectly justifiable, may be assigned, the worst has the chance of being preferred.”
Editor's note · Context
Burke reflects on the tendency to prefer the worst motives when multiple justifications are possible.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
Not being illuminated with the light of which the gentlemen of France tell us they have got so abundant a share, they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance and fallibility of mankind.
Let us add, if we please, but let us preserve what they have left; and standing on the firm ground of the British Constitution, let us be satisfied to admire, rather than attempt to follow in their desperate flights, the aëronauts of…
The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.





