We see to what low and despicable passions of all kinds many men in that class are ready to sacrifice the patrimonial estates which might be perpetuated in their families with splendor, and with the fame of hereditary benefactors to mankind, from generation to generation.
Burke laments how individuals sacrifice their family legacies for fleeting passions, undermining their potential as benefactors.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
The body of the people must not find the principles of natural subordination by art rooted out of their minds.
To keep a balance between the power of acquisition on the part of the subject and the demands he is to answer on the part of the state is the fundamental part of the skill of a true politician.
To tell the people that they are relieved by the dilapidation of their public estate is a cruel and insolent imposition.
Other voices in this conversation
