Edmund Burke Quotes about Evil

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The Fate of good men who refuse to become involved in politics is to be ruled by evil men.

The Fate of good men who refuse to become involved in politics is to be ruled by evil men.

Edmund Burke

Fate, Men, Evil

Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years.

Edmund Burke

Years, Evil, Half

Edmund Burke, Christian ENGLISH (pseud.) (1861). “Liberation tested by Philosophy and Experience. In “Reflections on the French Revolution,” etc. [The dedication signed: Christian English.]”, p.14

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

Wisdom, Evil, Liberty

Edmund Burke (2005). “Burke, Select Works”, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

Evil prevails when good men fail to act.

Edmund Burke

Men, Evil, Good Man

One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.

Edmund Burke

Evil, Enemy, Good And Evil

William Pitt (Earl of Chatham), Edmund Burke, Thomas Erskine Baron Erskine, Jean Gabriel Peltier (1834). “Celebrated Speeches of Chatham, Burke, and Erskine: To which is Added the Arguement of Mr. Mackintosh in the Case of Peltier”, p.298

All that needs to be done for evil to prevail is good men doing nothing.

Edmund Burke

Men, Evil, Good Man

Vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.

Edmund Burke

Evil, Vices, Half

'Reflections on the Revolution in France' (1790) p. 113

Evil succeeds when good men do nothing

Edmund Burke

Men, Evil, Good Man

Evils we have had continually calling for reformation, and reformations more grievous than any evils.

Edmund Burke

Evil, Calling, Reformation

Edmund Burke (1858). “The Inherent Evils of All State Governments Demonstrated: Being a Reprint of [his] Essay, "A Vindication of Natural Society": with Notes and an Appendix”, p.35

The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise isgone! it isgone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honour, which felt a stain like a wound, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.

Edmund Burke

Nurse, Evil, Grace

'Reflections on the Revolution in France' (1790) p. 113

Nothing is so rash as fear; and the counsels of pusillanimity very rarely put off, whilst they are always sure to aggravate, the evils from which they would fly.

Edmund Burke

Evil, Anticipation

"Revolutionary Writings: Reflections on the Revolution in France and the First Letter on a Regicide Peace".

Taste and elegance, though they are reckoned only among the smaller and secondary morals, yet are of no mean importance in the regulations of life. A moral taste is not of force to turn vice into virtue; but it recommends virtue with something like the blandishments of pleasure, and it infinitely abates the evils of vice.

Edmund Burke

Mean, Evil, Vices

Edmund Burke (1841). “Works”, p.484