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
believe men hands
All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing as they must if they believe they can do nothing. There is nothing worse because the council of despair is declaration of irresponsibility; it is Pilate washing his hands.
hands government-welfare scarcity
And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them.
power hands guilty
Power, in whatever hands, is rarely guilty of too strict limitations on itself.
wise hands oppression
The wise determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable, from sensibility to oppression; the high minded, from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands.
men hands care
Men have no right to put the well-being of the present generation wholly out of the question. Perhaps the only moral trust with any certainty in our hands is the care of our own time.
passion hands style
In doing good, we are generally cold, and languid, and sluggish; and of all things afraid of being too much in the right. But theworks of malice and injustice are quite in another style. They are finished with a bold, masterly hand; touched as they are with the spirit of those vehement passions that call forth all our energies, whenever we oppress and persecute..
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.
hands bites ingratitude
We set ourselves to bite the hand that feeds us.
anxious confident despised ruined security
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than be ruined by too confident a security
change means state
A state without some means of change is without the means of its conservation
bullying freedom work
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
government unjust oppressive-governments
Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.
heart keeps shame virtue whilst wholly
Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart
air breathe corrupt exalt importance manners refine
Manners are of more importance than laws... Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in.