Quotes by Edmund Burke
A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.
Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.
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.
Beauty is the promise of happiness.
Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.
The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.
Good order is the foundation of all things.
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
Falsehood is a perennial spring.
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.
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.
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.
Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty.
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.
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.
It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.
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.
Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.
Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.
