Quotes by Burke, Edmund

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

Burke, Edmund on doubt
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"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."

Burke, Edmund on drugs
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"Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy."

Burke, Edmund on economy and economics   

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

Burke, Edmund on economy and economics   

"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."

Burke, Edmund on elections   

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Burke, Edmund on evil
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"Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other"

Burke, Edmund on example
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"It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact."

Burke, Edmund on facts
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"Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls."

Burke, Edmund on fame   

"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear."

Burke, Edmund on fear
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"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."

Burke, Edmund on finance   

"Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver."

Burke, Edmund on flattery   

"The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered."

Burke, Edmund on force   

"When ever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither is safe."

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

Burke, Edmund on alliances   

"Ambition can creep as well as soar."

Burke, Edmund on ambition   

"A people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood."

Burke, Edmund on america   

"Young man, there is America, which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners."

Burke, Edmund on america   

"Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government."

Burke, Edmund on government
3 fans of this quote   

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"The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of the great."

Burke, Edmund on greatness   

"Great men are the guideposts and landmarks in the state."

Burke, Edmund on greatness   

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"People will not look forward to posterity who will not look backward to their ancestors."

Burke, Edmund on history and historians   

"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."

Burke, Edmund on inheritance   

"To innovate is not to reform."

Burke, Edmund on innovation   

"People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law; and those who have must to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous."

Burke, Edmund on law and lawyers   

"Bad laws are the worst form of tyranny."

Burke, Edmund on law and lawyers
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"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."

Burke, Edmund on law and lawyers   

"Laws, like houses, lean on one another."

Burke, Edmund on law and lawyers   

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"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."

Burke, Edmund on law and lawyers   

"The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts."

Burke, Edmund on liberty   

"Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed."

Burke, Edmund on liberty   

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

Burke, Edmund on liberty   

"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."

Burke, Edmund on liberty   

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

Burke, Edmund on applause   

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

Burke, Edmund on aristocracy   

"In the weakness of one kind of authority, and in the fluctuation of all, the officers of an army will remain for some time mutinous and full of faction, until some popular general, who understands the art of conciliating the soldiery, and who possesses the true spirit of command, shall draw the eyes of all men upon himself. Armies will obey him on his personal account. There is no other way of securing military obedience in this state of things."

Burke, Edmund on army and navy   

"In doing good, we are generally cold, and languid, and sluggish; and of all things afraid of being too much in the right. But the works of malice and injustice are quite in another style. They are finished with a bold, masterly hand; touched as they are with the spirit of those vehement passions that call forth all our energies, whenever we oppress and persecute."

Burke, Edmund on malice   

"Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in."

Burke, Edmund on manners   

"The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny."

Burke, Edmund on mobs   

"A nation is not conquered which is perpetually to be conquered."

Burke, Edmund on nations