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
evil anticipation
Nothing is so rash as fear; its counsels very rarely put off, whilst they are always sure to aggravate the evils from which it would fly.
fate men evil
The Fate of good men who refuse to become involved in politics is to be ruled by evil men.
men evil good-man
Evil prevails when good men fail to act.
men evil good-man
Evil succeeds when good men do nothing
evil enemy good-and-evil
One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.
evil half vices
Vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.
evil calling reformation
Evils we have had continually calling for reformation, and reformations more grievous than any evils.
practice evil may
A thing may look specious in theory, and yet be ruinous in practice; a thing may look evil in theory, and yet be in practice excellent.
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.
years evil half
Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years.
mean evil regulation
Taste and elegance, though they are reckoned only among the smaller and secondary morals, yet are of no mean importance in the regulations of life. A moral taste is not of force to turn vice into virtue; but it recommends virtue with something like the blandishments of pleasure, and it infinitely abates the evils of vice.
men evil good-man
All that needs to be done for evil to prevail is good men doing nothing.
wisdom evil liberty
But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
generous nature suffered wise
Through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to perfection.