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
country talent revolt
Jacobinism is the revolt of the enterprising talents of a country against its property.
may definitions littles
A definition may be very exact, and yet go but a very little way towards informing us of the nature of the thing defined.
citizens zealous affection
We begin our public affection in our families. No cold relation is a zealous citizen.
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.
book law branches
I have been told by an eminent bookseller, that in no branch of his business , after tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as those on the law exported to the Plantations .
virtue cardinals temperance
That cardinal virtue, temperance.
weakness produce delusion
Delusion and weakness produce not one mischief the less, because they are universal.
may language clearness
It may be observed, that very polished languages, and such as are praised for their superior clearness and perspicuity, are generally deficient in strength.
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.
men mad wicked
God has sometimes converted wickedness into madness; and it is to the credit of human reason that men who are not in some degree mad are never capable of being in the highest degree wicked.
responsibility power agreement
To govern according to the sense and agreement of the interests of the people is a great and glorious object of governance. This object cannot be obtained but through the medium of popular election, and popular election is a mighty evil.
witty knowledge important
There are three estates in Parliament but in the Reporters' Gallery yonder there sits a Fourth Estate more important far than they all. It is not a figure of speech or witty saying, it is a literal fact, very momentous to us in these times.
freedom prove ought
To prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to deprecate the value of freedom itself.
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.