Quotes By Edmund Burke

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

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

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.

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

Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.

The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.

A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.

Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.

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

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Good order is the foundation of all things.

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society.

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

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

The traveller has reached the end of the journey!

Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.

He had no failings which were not owing to a noble cause; to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immoderate passion for fame; a passion which is the instinct of all great souls.

Tyrants seldom want pretexts.

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

But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.

I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.

Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.

Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.

What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man.

The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.

The person who grieves suffers his passion to grow upon him; he indulges it, he loves it; but this never happens in the case of actual pain, which no man ever willingly endured for any considerable time.

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.

Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.