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 independence welfare
To drive men from independence to live on alms, is itself great cruelty.
humble men mind
Religion is for the man in humble life, and to raise his nature, and to put him in mind of a state in which the privileges of opulence will cease, when he will be equal by nature, and may be more than equal by virtue.
art men prejudice
Prejudice renders a man's virtue his habit, and a series of unconnected arts. Though just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature.
men age prejudice
Instead of casting away all our old prejudices, we cherish them to a very considerable degree, and, to take more shame to ourselves, we cherish them because they are prejudices; and the longer they have lasted and the more generally they have prevailed, the more we cherish them. We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason; because we suspect that this stock in each man is small, and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages.
art powerful passion
Poetry, with all its obscurity, has a more general as well as a more powerful dominion over the passions than the art of painting.
kind pleasure
Pleasure of every kind quickly satisfies.
party government tables
The parties are the gamesters; but government keeps the table, and is sure to be the winner in the end.
eye men injustice-and-oppression
The poorest being that crawls on earth, contending to save itself from injustice and oppression, is an object respectable in the eyes of God and man.
arms oppression rigor
An extreme rigor is sure to arm everything against it.
fall political quality
Obstinacy, sir, is certainly a great vice; and in the changeful state of political affairs it is frequently the cause of great mischief. It happens, however, very unfortunately, that almost the whole line of the great and masculine virtues--constancy, gravity, magnanimity, fortitude, fidelity, and firmness--are closely allied to this disagreeable quality, of which you have so just an abhorrence; and in their excess all these virtues very easily fall into it.
mourning care way
The true way to mourn the dead is to take care of the living who belong to them.
religion comfort source
Religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good and of all comfort.
religion fabric foundation
True religion is the foundation of society. When that is once shaken by contempt, the whole fabric cannot be stable nor lasting.
struggle greatness honor
I do not hesitate to say that the road to eminence and power, from an obscure condition, ought not to be made too easy, nor a thing too much of course. If rare merit be the rarest of all things, it ought to pass through some sort of probation. The temple of honor ought to be seated on an eminence. If it be open through virtue, let it be remembered, too, that virtue is never tried but by some difficulty and some struggle.