When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.[Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)]
AUTHOR:
Edmund
Burke PC (12 January [NS] 1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Irish statesman, author,
orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served
for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig
party. He is mainly remembered for his support of the cause of the American
Revolutionaries, and for his later opposition to the French Revolution. The
latter led to his becoming the leading figure within the conservative faction
of the Whig party, which he dubbed the "Old Whigs", in opposition to
the pro–French Revolution "New Whigs", led by Charles James Fox.
Burke was praised by both conservatives and liberals in the 19th century. Since
the 20th century, he has generally been viewed as the philosophical founder of
modern Conservatism, as well as a representative of classical liberalism.
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