Edmund Burke Quotes (222 Quotes)

We must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

Frugality is founded on the principal that all riches have limits.

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

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

All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice.

Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.

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

In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature.

Free trade is not based on utility but on justice.

Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.

Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times, and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations - wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.

I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophists, economists and calculators has succeeded and the glory of Europe is gone forever.

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

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

Prudence is a quality incompatible with vice, And can never be effectively enlisted in its cause.

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

The wisdom of our ancestors.

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.

Spain A whale stranded upon the coast of Europe.

A populace never rebels from passion for attack, but from impatience of suffering.

Good order is the foundation of all good things.

A wise and salutary neglect.

It is one of the finest problems in legislation, what the state ought to take upon itself to direct and what it ought to leave, with as little interference as possible, to individual discretion

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.

Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.

The objects of a financier are, then, to secure an ample revenue to impose it with judgment and equality to employ it economically and, when necessity obliges him to make use of credit, to secure its foundations in that instance, and for ever, by the clearness and candor of his proceedings, the exactness of his calculations, and the solidity of his funds.

In the groves of their academy, at the end of every vista, you see nothing but the gallows.

In this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of polity the image of a relation in blood binding up the constitution of our country with our dearest domestic ties adopting our fundamental laws into the bosom of our family affections keeping inseparable and cherishing with the warmth of all their combined and mutually reflected charities, our state, our hearths, our sepulchres, and our altars.

The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.

Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.

Falsehood is a perennial spring.

Good order is the foundation of all things.

Well is it known that ambition can creep as well as soar.

As wealth is power, so all power will infallibly draw wealth to itself by some means or other.

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

It is undoubtedly the business of ministers very much to consult the inclinations of the people, but they ought to take great care that they do not receive that inclination from the few persons who may happen to approach them

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

A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.

Whenever our neighbour's house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own.

To execute laws is a royal office to execute orders is not to be a king. However, a political executive magistracy, though merely such, is a great trust.

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.

Man is by his constitution a religious animal.

I have in general no very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper government.

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

People must be taken as they are, and we should never try make them or ourselves better by quarreling with them.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. This amicable conflict with difficulty helps us to an intimate acquaintance with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial.

Tyrants seldom want pretexts.

The religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principles of resistance it is the dissidence of dissent, and the protestantism of the Protestant religion.

Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.