Edmund Burke quotes

The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not
remove the necessity of subduing again: And a nation is not governed, which is perpetually
to be conquered.
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.
Edmund Burke

And having looked to government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite
the hand that fed them.
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.
Edmund Burke

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

Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security.
Edmund Burke

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

Old religious factions are volcanoes burnt out.
Edmund Burke

It is a general popular error to imagine the loudest complainers for the public to be the most
anxious for its welfare.
Edmund Burke

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

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.
Edmund Burke