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Edmund Burke Quotes - Page 9

All Quotes Abuse Adversity Affection Age Aids Ambition Anarchy Army Art Atheism Beauty Business Change Character Charity Church Community Confusion Corruption Country Creation Crime Curiosity Democracy Design Desire Duty Economy Encouragement Energy Enthusiasm Evil Exercise Failing Fear Feelings Flattery Freedom Giving Greatness Hate Healing Heart History House Human Nature Humanity Hypocrisy Imagination Injustice Inspiration Inspirational Judging Judgment Justice Language Liberty Life Losing Love Lying Mankind Military Morality Motivational Nature Oppression Pain Passion Past Peace Perfection Perseverance Planning Pleasure Politics Power Prejudice Pride Property Prosperity Purpose Quality Reality Religion Revolution Sacrifice Society Solitude Soul Struggle Style Success Suffering Talent Teaching Time Trade Treason Tyranny Understanding Virtue War Weakness Wealth Wisdom

All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities.

All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities.

Failure, Destiny, Men

'Letters on a Regicide Peace' Letter 1 (1796)

There is a courageous wisdom; there is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution but of fear.

Courage, Fear, Reptiles

Edmund Burke (1807). “The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke”, p.317

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.

Understanding, Planning, Observation

Edmund Burke (1792). “Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London, Relative to that Event: In a Letter Intended to Have Been Sent to a Gentleman in Paris”, p.175

If we owned the property, we will be free and prosperous. If so they regain control, we will become poor

Poor, Ifs, Property

Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.

Society, Liberty, Appetite

Edmund Burke (1791). “A Letter from Mr. Burke, to a Member of the National Assembly: In Answer to Some Objections to His Book on French Affairs”, p.69

The whole compass of the language is tried to find sinonimies [synonyms] and circumlocutions for massacres and murder. Things never called by their common names. Massacre is sometimes called agitation, sometimes effervescence, sometimes excess sometimes too continued an exercise of revolutionary power.

Exercise, Names, Agitation

He was not merely a chip off the old block, but the old block itself.

Block, Tree, Chips

1781 Commenting on William Pitt theYounger's maiden speech in the House of Commons, 26 Feb.

The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up any of their own.

Religion, Careful, Against Religion

Edmund Burke (1792). “The works of ... Edmund Burke [ed. by W. King and F. Laurence].”, p.7

I am convinced that we have a degree of delight, and that no small one, in the real misfortunes and pain of others

Pain, Real, Degrees

Edmund Burke (1792). “The works of ... Edmund Burke [ed. by W. King and F. Laurence].”, p.106

I cannot conceive how any man can have brought himself to that pitch of presumption, to consider his country as nothing but carte blanche, upon which he may scribble whatever he pleases.

Country, Men, May

Edmund Burke (2012). “Reflections on the Revolution in France”, p.158, Courier Corporation

The yielding of the weak is the concession to fear.

Fear, Weakness, Weak

Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists not in saving but in selection.

Saving, Virtue, Economy

Edmund Burke (1834). “The Beauties of Burke, Consisting of Selections from His Works”, p.59

When slavery is established in any part of the world, those who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom.

Jealous, History, Proud

Edmund Burke, James BURKE (Barrister-at-Law.) (1854). “The Speeches of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, with Memoir and Historical Introductions. By James Burke”, p.86

All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they may alter the mode and application, but have no power over the substance of original justice.

Law, Justice, Judging

"The Works of Edmund Burke, with a Memoir".

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

Commitment, Government, Political

"On Moving His Resolutions for Conciliation with the Colonies," 22 Mar. 1775

It is by sympathy we enter into the concerns of others, that we are moved as they are moved, and are never suffered to be indifferent spectators of almost anything which men can do or suffer. For sympathy may be considered as a sort of substitution, by which we are put into the place of another man, and affected in many respects as he is affected.

Sympathy, Men, Suffering

Edmund Burke (1823). “A philosophical inquiry, etc”, p.54

Somebody has said, that a king may make a nobleman but he cannot make a gentleman.

Kings, Gentleman, May

Letter to William Smith, 29 January 1795, in 'The Correspondence of Edmund Burke' vol. 8 (1969)

As the rose-tree is composed of the sweetest flowers and the sharpest thorns, as the heavens are sometimes overcast—alternately tempestuous and serene—so is the life of man intermingled with hopes and fears, with joys and sorrows, with pleasure and pain.

Inspirational, Pain, Flower

The greatest crimes do not arise from a want of feeling for others but from an over-sensibilit y for ourselves and an over-indulgence to our own desires

Feelings, Desire, Want

"Impact of a Father's Reflection". Book by Frank L. Day, p. 44, 2010.

The superfluities of a rich nation furnish a better object of trade than the necessities of a poor one. It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.

World, Wealth, Rich

Edmund Burke, Harvey C. Mansfield (1984). “Selected Letters of Edmund Burke”, p.406, University of Chicago Press

I do not hesitate to say that the road to eminence and power, from an obscure condition, ought not to be made too easy, nor a thing too much of course. If rare merit be the rarest of all things, it ought to pass through some sort of probation. The temple of honor ought to be seated on an eminence. If it be open through virtue, let it be remembered, too, that virtue is never tried but by some difficulty and some struggle.

Struggle, Greatness, Honor

Edmund Burke (1790). “Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the proceedings in certain societies in London, relative to that event. In a letter intended to have been sent to a gentleman in Paris ... The seventh edition”, p.74

He that accuses all mankind of corruption ought to remember that he is sure to convict only one.

Remember, Corruption, Accusation

Edmund Burke (2015). “A Letter On the Affairs of America”, p.43, Lulu Press, Inc

Surely the church is a place where one day's truce ought to be allowed to the dissensions and animosities of mankind.

Church, One Day, Mankind

Edmund Burke (2010). “On Taste on the Sublime and Beautiful, Reflections on the Revolution, A Letter to a Noble Lord”, p.160, Cosimo, Inc.

But a good patriot, and a true politician, always considers how he shall make the most of the existing materials of his country. A disposition, to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman. Everything else is vulgar in the conception, perilous in the execution.

Country, Taken, Together

Edmund Burke (1852). “The Works and Correspondance of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke”, p.280

Fraud is the ready minister of injustice.

Injustice, Ministers, Fraud

Edmund Burke (1807). “Works: 1st American from the Last London Ed”, p.282

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