Famous Edmund Burke Quotations

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"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear."
by Edmund Burke
"It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact."
by Edmund Burke
"Our patience will achieve more than our force."
by Edmund Burke
"All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter."
by Edmund Burke
"The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse."
by Edmund Burke
"A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman."
by Edmund Burke
"The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity."
by Edmund Burke
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
by Edmund Burke
"Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none."
by Edmund Burke
"To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men."
by Edmund Burke
"What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man."
by Edmund Burke
"When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people."
by Edmund Burke
"Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants."
by Edmund Burke
"You can never plan the future by the past."
by Edmund Burke
"Custom reconciles us to everything."
by Edmund Burke
"Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other"
by Edmund Burke
"In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature."
by Edmund Burke
"Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair."
by Edmund Burke
"Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society."
by Edmund Burke
"Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil."
by Edmund Burke
"Superstition is the religion of feeble minds."
by Edmund Burke
"Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government."
by Edmund Burke
"Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together."
by Edmund Burke
"Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy."
by Edmund Burke
"Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all."
by Edmund Burke
"It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare."
by Edmund Burke
"Laws, like houses, lean on one another."
by Edmund Burke
"If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived."
by Edmund Burke
"By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation."
by Edmund Burke
"Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver."
by Edmund Burke
"Frugality is founded on the principal that all riches have limits."
by Edmund Burke
"A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation."
by Edmund Burke
"An event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak, and impossible to be silent."
by Edmund Burke
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
by Edmund Burke
"The only infallible criterion of wisdom to vulgar minds -- success."
by Edmund Burke
"Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other."
by Edmund Burke
"Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all."
by Edmund Burke
"A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood."
by Edmund Burke
"A man who works beyond the surface of things,though he may be wrong himself, yet he clears the way for others and may make even his errors subservient to the cause of truth."
by Edmund Burke
"A man who works beyond the surface of things, though he may be wrong himself, yet he clears the way for others and may make even his errors subservient to the cause of truth."
by Edmund Burke
"A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors."
by Edmund Burke
"All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice."
by Edmund Burke
"All government -- indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act -- is founded on compromise and barter."
by Edmund Burke
"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing"
by Edmund Burke
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
by Edmund Burke
"All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in this world is for enough good men to do nothing."
by Edmund Burke
"All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing."
by Edmund Burke
"All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing."
by Edmund Burke
"Ambition can creep as well as soar."
by Edmund Burke
"Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist."
by Edmund Burke
"Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist"
by Edmund Burke
"An event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak, and impossible to be silent"
by Edmund Burke
"Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones."
by Edmund Burke
"Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny."
by Edmund Burke
"Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny"
by Edmund Burke
"Bad law is the worst sort of tyranny."
by Edmund Burke
"Beauty is the promise of happiness."
by Edmund Burke
"Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty."
by Edmund Burke
"Better be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident security."
by Edmund Burke
"But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever."
by Edmund Burke
"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."
by Edmund Burke
"But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint."
by Edmund Burke
"Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind."
by Edmund Burke
"Education is the cheap defense of nations."
by Edmund Burke
"Facts are to the mind what food is to the body."
by Edmund Burke
"Falsehood is a perennial spring."
by Edmund Burke
"Free trade is not based on utility but on justice."
by Edmund Burke
"Fraud and prevarication are servile vices. They sometimes grow out of the necessities, always out of the habits, of slavish and degenerate spirits. It is an erect countenance, it is a firm adherence to principle, it is a power of resisting false shame and frivolous fear, that assert our good faith and honor, and assure to us the confidence of mankind."
by Edmund Burke
"Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have right that these wants should be provided for, including the want of a sufficient restraint upon their passions."
by Edmund Burke
"He had no failings which were not owing to a noble cause; to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immoderate passion for fame; a passion which is the instinct of all great souls."
by Edmund Burke
"He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper."
by Edmund Burke
"He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper"
by Edmund Burke
"He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist in our helper."
by Edmund Burke
"He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper."
by Edmund Burke
"History is a pact between the dead, the living, and the yet unborn."
by Edmund Burke
"Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises; for never intending to go beyond promises; it costs nothing."
by Edmund Burke
"Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing."
by Edmund Burke
"I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business."
by Edmund Burke
"I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone."
by Edmund Burke
"I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people."
by Edmund Burke
"If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed."
by Edmund Burke
"If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed"
by Edmund Burke
"If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue."
by Edmund Burke
"In all forms of government the people is the true legislator."
by Edmund Burke
"In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority."
by Edmund Burke
"It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare"
by Edmund Burke
"It is by imitation, far more than by precept, that we learn everything; and what we learn thus, we acquire not only more efficiently, but more pleasantly. This forms our manners, our opinions, our lives."
by Edmund Burke
"It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do."
by Edmund Burke
"It is undoubtedly the business of ministers very much to consult the inclinations of the people, but they ought to take great care that they do not receive that inclination from the few persons who may happen to approach them."
by Edmund Burke
"It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere."
by Edmund Burke
"It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs."
by Edmund Burke
"Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle."
by Edmund Burke
"Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed."
by Edmund Burke
"Men have no right to put the well-being of the present generation wholly out of the question. Perhaps the only moral trust with any certainty in our hands is the care of our own time."
by Edmund Burke
"Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair."
by Edmund Burke
"Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair"
by Edmund Burke
"Never despair but if you do, work on in despair."
by Edmund Burke
"No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
by Edmund Burke
"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear"
by Edmund Burke
"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."
by Edmund Burke


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