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Quotation from The Burke-Paine Debate on the French Revolution by Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine
“A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution.”
The Burke-Paine Debate on the French Revolution, Rights of Man, Part I (1791), on constitutions (The Writings of Thomas Paine, ed. Conway, vol. 2 (1894), Project Gutenberg #3742; library text of common-sense-rights-of-man-and-other-writings)
Paine argues that a constitution must be a written act of the people prior to government, and that England therefore has none.
Citation: "A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution." — Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine, The Burke-Paine Debate on the French Revolution, Rights of Man, Part I (1791), on constitutions (The Writings of Thomas Paine, ed. Conway, vol. 2 (1894), Project Gutenberg #3742; library text of common-sense-rights-of-man-and-other-writings). (id burke-paine-debate-q4)
Portrait: Sir Joshua Reynolds - Edmund Burke, 1729 - 1797. Statesman, orator and author - PG 2362 - National Galleries of Scotland, Joshua Reynolds, Public domain.
