On the record
The meditations of the closet have infected senates with a subtle frenzy, and inflamed armies with the brands of the Furies.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “The meditations of the closet have infected senates with a subtle frenzy, and inflamed armies with the brands of the…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke warns about the dangerous influence of abstract ideas on political and military institutions.
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More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
Do they mean to attaint and disable backwards all the kings that have reigned before the Revolution, and consequently to stain the throne of England with the blot of a continual usurpation?
Jan 1, 1790
When such an unwarrantable maxim is once established, that no throne is lawful but the elective, no one act of the princes who preceded this era of fictitious election can be valid.
Jan 1, 1790
Their objects would be enlarged with their elevation; but their disposition, and habits, and mode of accomplishing their designs must remain the same.
Jan 1, 1790
If kings who did not owe their crown to the choice of their people had no title to make laws, what will become of the statute De tallagio non concedendo? of the Petition of Right? of the act of Habeas Corpus?
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