Edmund Burke quotes page 1

1729 - 1797, Irish-British author, statesman and philosopher

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke

Our patience will achieve more than our force.
Edmund Burke

Good order is the foundation of all things.
Edmund Burke

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

Never, no, never did Nature say one thing and Wisdom say another.
Edmund Burke

They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate.
Edmund Burke

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.
Edmund Burke

Men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.
Edmund Burke

Never despair. But if you do, work on in despair.
Edmund Burke

Freedom and not servitude is the cure of anarchy; as religion, and not atheism, is the true
remedy for superstition.
Edmund Burke

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

People never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
Edmund Burke

There is no safety for honest men but by believing all possible evil of evil men.
Edmund Burke

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our
helper.
Edmund Burke

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

To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.
Edmund Burke

All government, indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent
act, is founded on compromise and barter.
Edmund Burke

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

When bad men combine, the good must associate else they will fall one by one, an unpitied
sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
Edmund Burke

There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
Edmund Burke

There is but one law for all, namely, that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator,
the law of humanity, justice, equity - the law of nature, and of nations.
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

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

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.
Edmund Burke

The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.
Edmund Burke

Writers, especially when they act in a body and with one direction, have great influence on
the public mind.
Edmund Burke

A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
Edmund Burke

Liberty, too, must be limited in order to be possessed.
Edmund Burke

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by
the laughter of the gods.
Edmund Burke

When any work seems to have required immense force and labor to effect it, the idea is
grand.
Edmund Burke

Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.
Edmund Burke

When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their
talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers
instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.
Edmund Burke

Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
Edmund Burke

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.
Edmund Burke

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.
Edmund Burke

<< Previous    [1]  2  3    Next >>