Explanation: Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom, and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
Answer: The lines have been extracted from Edmund Burke's “Speech on Conciliation with America”, an unforgettable piece in the tradition of British parliamentary speeches. This is one of the oft-quoted and celebrated political maxims uttered by Burke. Here he underscores the importance of magnanimity or generosity in political transactions.
In the "Speech on Conciliation with America" Burke's motto is conciliation with the wealthy and opulent colony. He does not want to lose the colony. He says that generosity is the best wisdom. To Burke's understanding, it is only by means of generosity America can be retained. It is by lifting their hearts, it is by initiating the Americans to the British constitution, it is by love and friendship, and not force and distrust, that England can retain America. Burke is of the opinion that men with narrow outlooks can neither win nor retain a vast empire. What Burke stresses is that an Empire cannot be ruled by petty minds. Statesmen at the helm of affairs should rise above all mean and petty considerations and bring to their task of empire- building a wide outlook, largeness of heart, and a spirit of generosity. Magnanimity is a spiritual force that knits up a sovereign with his subject or people in an indissoluble bond of union. Burke here alludes to the point that politics is for broad-minded people who have a generous outlook on man.
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