Edmund Burke Quotes
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Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.
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But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.
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If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.
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When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
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The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.
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Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.
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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.
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Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.
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If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.
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The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
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Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.
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Falsehood is a perennial spring.
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Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.
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Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times, and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations - wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.
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No man can mortgage his injustice as a pawn for his fidelity.
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There is a sort of enthusiasm in all projectors, absolutely necessary for their affairs, which makes them proof against the most fatiguing delays, the most mortifying disappointments, the most shocking insults; and, what is severer than all, the presumptuous judgement of the ignorant upon their designs.
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Frugality is founded on the principal that all riches have limits.
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He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
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Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.
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Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.
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Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
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All those instances to be found in history, whether real or fabulous, of a doubtful public spirit, at which morality is perplexed, reason is staggered, and from which affrighted Nature recoils, are their chosen and almost sole examples for the instruction of their youth.
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Neither the few nor the many have a right to act merely by their will, in any matter connected with duty, trust, engagement, or obligation.
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People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.