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 mind may
Contempt is not a thing to be despised. It may be borne with a calm and equal mind, but no man, by lifting his head high, can pretend that he does not perceive the scorns that are poured down on him from above.
independent decree tribunals
The tribunal of conscience exists independent of edicts and decrees.
church one-day mankind
Surely the church is a place where one day's truce ought to be allowed to the dissensions and animosities of mankind.
men misery prosperity
Men are as much blinded by the extremes of misery as by the extremes of prosperity.
kings people flattery
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver; and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings.
rude benefits fierce
The introduction of Christianity, which, under whatever form, always confers such inestimable benefits on mankind, soon made a sensible change in these rude and fierce manners.
may unqualified faults
It is undoubtedly true, though it may seem paradoxical,--but, in general, those who are habitually employed in finding and displaying faults are unqualified for the work of reformation.
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.
wise encouragement good-man
The esteem of wise and good men is the greatest of all temporal encouragements to virtue; and it is a mark of an abandoned spirit to have no regard to it.
hands skills understanding
Is it in destroying and pulling down that skill is displayed? The shallowest understanding, the rudest hand, is more than equal to that task.
way talent failing
As to great and commanding talents, they are the gift of Providence in some way unknown to us, they rise where they are least expected; they fail when everything seems disposed to produce them, or at least to call them forth.
writing one-direction mind
Writers, especially when they act in a body and with one direction, have great influence on the public mind.
powerful causes enthusiasm
Religion is among the most powerful causes of enthusiasm.
enemy able kind
Of all things, wisdom is the most terrified with epidemical fanaticism, because, of all enemies, it is that against which she is the least able to furnish any kind of resource.