Burke on opposition, coercive law, and reform

Three Edmund Burke passages offer distinct lessons for public action. One treats an antagonist as a force that strengthens the nerves and sharpens skill. Another warns that people crushed by law will seek power and become enemies of the legal order. A third says that people carrying great public schemes must endure delays, disappointments, insults, and confident judgments from the uninformed. Together the quotations present political work as a balance between resistance, legitimate law, and persistence.