| Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989. | | | |
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| | | NUMBER: | 1765 |
| AUTHOR: | Edmund Burke (1729–97) |
| QUOTATION: | But a good patriot, and a true politician, always considers how he shall make the most of the existing materials of his country. A disposition, to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman. Everything else is vulgar in the conception, perilous in the execution. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | EDMUND BURKE, “Reflections on the Revolution in France,” 1790, The Works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke, vol. 3, p. 440 (1899). |
| SUBJECTS: | Statesman |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia | | |
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