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
men evil good-man
Evil succeeds when good men do nothing
mean power politics
All wealth is power, so power must infallibly draw wealth to itself by some means or other.
responsibility prison crime
Responsibility prevents crimes.
men stamps cant
Of this stamp is the cant of, Not men, but measures.
justice discipline world
Restraint and discipline and examples of virtue and justice. These are the things that form the education of the world.
power sublime modification
I know of nothing sublime which is not some modification of power.
congratulations risk 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.
reality color giving
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.
law giving community
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.
country wine beer
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.
inspirational pain flower
As the rose-tree is composed of the sweetest flowers and the sharpest thorns, as the heavens are sometimes overcast—alternately tempestuous and serene—so is the life of man intermingled with hopes and fears, with joys and sorrows, with pleasure and pain.
pain ideas giving
Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling .... When danger or pain press too nearly, they are incapable of giving any delight, and [yet] with certain modifications, they may be, and they are delightful, as we every day experience.
views excellence mankind
For there is in mankind an unfortunate propensity to make themselves, their views and their works, the measure of excellence in every thing whatsoever
business taxation add
Taxing is an easy business. Any projector can contrive new compositions, any bungler can add to the old.