Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burkewas an Irish statesman born in Dublin, as well as an author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher who, after moving to London, served as a member of parliamentfor many years in the House of Commons with the Whig Party...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth12 January 1729
CountryIreland
lying justice abortion
Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.
character passion men
It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.
tyrants tyranny multitudes
The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.
inspirational motivational success
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
men duty extremes
Men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told their duty.
virtue
All virtue which is impracticable is spurious.
past men decision
Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, skeptical, puzzled and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man's virtue his habit; and not a series of unconnected acts. Through past prejudice, his duty becomes part of his nature.
expression people ordinary
In general the languages of most unpolished people have a great force and energy of expression; and this is but natural. Uncultivated people are but ordinary observers of things, and not critical in distinguishing them; but, for that reason, they admire more, and are more affected with what they see, and therefore express themselves in a warmer and more passionate manner.
past age complaining
To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.
citizens zealous affection
We begin our public affection in our families. No cold relation is a zealous citizen.
evil nurse grace
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.
law doctors justice
It is hard to say whether doctors of law or divinity have made the greater advances in the lucrative business of mystery.
causes thrones mystery
That great chain of causes, which, linking one to another, even to the throne of God Himself, can never be unraveled by any industry of ours.
nations
A nation is not conquered which is perpetually to be conquered.