Edmund Burke Quotes

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man.

The traveller has reached the end of the journey!

There is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feelings but none when they are under the i...

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughte...

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughte...

Society is indeed a contract. ... It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a pa...

It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. ...

Adversity is a severe instructor. ... He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens o...

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

Woman is not made to be the admiration of all, but the happiness of one.

Ambition can creep as well as soar.

You can never plan the future by the past.

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

History consists, for the greater part, of the miseries brought upon the world by pride, ambition, a...

Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, und...

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is fo...

Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.

A representative owes not just his industry but his judgement

Never despair but if you do work on in despair.

By gnawing through a dyke even a rat may drown a nation.

Beauty is the promise of happiness.

Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times, and in a...

But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and ...

We set ourselves to bite the hand that feeds us.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skills. Our antagonist is our helpe...

You cannot plan the future by the past.

A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood.

Well is it known that ambition can creep as well as soar.

I have not yet lost a feeling of wonder, and of delight, that the delicate motion should reside in a...

What shadows we are what shadows we pursue!

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants.

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

The wisdom of our ancestors.

A very great part of the mischiefs that vex this world arises from words.

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.

Queen of arts and daughter of heaven.

Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

There is a courageous wisdom there is also a false reptile prudence the result not of caution bu...

Dangers by being despised grow great.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.

People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

What is the use of discussing a man's abstract right to food or medicine? The question is upon the m...

But what is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for...

We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.

Example is the school of mankind and they will learn at no other.

All men that are ruined are ruined on the side of their natural propensities.

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society...

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.

People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be...

All government - indeed every human benefit and enjoyment every virtue and every prudent act - is ...

Your representative owes you not his industry only but his judgement and he betrays instead of se...

Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom and a great empire and little minds go ill t...

No power so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

Custom reconciles us to everything.

The effect of liberty on individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it w...

No passion so effectively robs the mind of its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

Mere parsimony is not economy . . . expense and great expense may be an essential part of true eco...

The writers against religion whilst they oppose every system are wisely careful never to set up an...

Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty.

Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.

Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the stri...

The cold neutrality of an impartial judge.

Good order is the foundation of all things.

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creatio...

Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.

Laws, like houses, lean on one another.

Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.

He that accuses all mankind of corruption ought to remember that he is sure to convict only one.

The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.

There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law...

Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.

I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country churchyard than in the tombs of the...

Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.

Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.

Society is indeed a contract ... it becomes a participant not only between those who are living, tho...

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

It is generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles and des...

A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.

Education is the cheap defense of nations.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

History is a pact between the dead the living and the yet unborn.

A nation without the means of reform is without the means of survival.

A disposition to preserve and an ability to improve taken together would be my standard of a stat...

But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; fo...

Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement.

War never leaves where it found a nation.

An ignorant man, who is not fool enough to meddle with his clock, is however sufficiently confident ...

But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, i...

The wild gas, the fixed air is plainly broke loose: but we ought to suspend our judgments until the ...

The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please; we ought to see what it w...

The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not peace to be hunted through the la...

The nature of things is, I admit, a sturdy adversary.

All That Is Needed For Evil To Succeeded, Is For Good People To Do Nothing