Edmund Burke Quotes
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People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
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What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man.
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Good order is the foundation of all things.
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All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities.
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Illustrious predecessor.
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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.
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Taxing is an easy business. Any projector can contrive new impositions, any bungler can add to the old.
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If any ask me what a free Government is, I answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the people think so, - and that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of this matter.
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It is the function of a judge not to make but to declare the law, according to the golden mete-wand of the law and not by the crooked cord of discretion.
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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.
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The individual is foolish; the multitude, for the moment is foolish, when they act without deliberation; but the species is wise, and, when time is given to it, as a species it always acts right.
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Applaud us when we run, console us when we fall, cheer us when we recover.
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Resolved to die in the last dike of prevarication.
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Falsehood and delusion are allowed in no case whatever: But, as in the exercise of all the virtues, there is an œconomy of truth. It is a sort of temperance, by which a man speaks truth with measure that he may speak it the longer.
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And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them.
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There was an ancient Roman lawyer, of great fame in the history of Roman jurisprudence, whom they called Cui Bono, from his having first introduced into judicial proceedings the argument, 'What end or object could the party have had in the act with which he is accused.'
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It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.
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Young man, there is America - which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners; yet shall, before you taste of death, show itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world.
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Nothing less will content me, than whole America.
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Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.
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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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Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.
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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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In their nomination to office they will not appoint to the exercise of authority as to a pitiful job, but as to a holy function.