Edmund Burke Quotes
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To innovate is not to reform.
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There is nothing that God has judged good for us that He has not given us the means to accomplish, both in the natural and the moral world.
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To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.
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Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.
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A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood.
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When Croft's 'Life of Dr. Young' was spoken of as a good imitation of Dr. Johnson's style, 'No, no,' said he, 'it is not a good imitation of Johnson; it has all his pomp without his force; it has all the nodosities of the oak, without its strength; it has all the contortions of the sibyl, without the inspiration.'
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Corrupt influence, which is itself the perennial spring of all prodigality, and of all disorder; which loads us, more than millions of debt; which takes away vigor from our arms, wisdom from our councils, and every shadow of authority and credit from the most venerable parts of our constitution.
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Men who undertake considerable things, even in a regular way, ought to give us ground to presume ability.
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Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.
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Of this stamp is the cant of, Not men, but measures.
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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.
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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.
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Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to any thing but power for their relief.
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Manners are of more importance than laws. The law can touch us here and there, now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation like that of the air we breathe in.
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It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.
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The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.
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The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up any of their own.
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Jacobinism is the revolt of the enterprising talents of a country against its property.
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Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security.
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Boldness formerly was not the character of Atheists as such. ... But of late they are grown active, designing, turbulent, and seditious.
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I decline the election. - It has ever been my rule through life, to observe a proportion between my efforts and my objects. I have never been remarkable for a bold, active, and sanguine pursuit of advantages that are personal to myself.
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The men of England - the men, I mean of light and leading in England.
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To speak of atrocious crime in mild language is treason to virtue.
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A people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood.