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About this quote

What does it mean?
Critics of religion often reject all systems without offering their own.
In plain terms
Those who fight religion rarely build a replacement.
What can you take from it?
Criticism without construction is incomplete.

Where it applies

  • debates
  • philosophical discussions
  • cultural criticism

Putting it to work

  • propose alternatives when critiquing
  • build while breaking

Questions to consider

  • Is it fair to demand alternatives?
  • What fills the void after critique?

Another view

Sometimes the goal is simply to dismantle harmful structures.

More from Edmund Burke

  1. A good parson once said that where mystery begins religion ends. Cannot I say, as truly at least, of human laws, that where mystery begins, justice ends?

    Permalink to quote #44
  2. The first and the simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind is Curiosity.

    Permalink to quote #46
  3. 'War,' says Machiavel, 'ought to be the only study of a prince;' and by a prince he means every sort of state, however constituted. 'He ought,' says this great…

    Permalink to quote #43

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