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
honesty government giving
All writers on the science of policy are agreed, and they agree with experience, that all governments must frequently infringe the rules of justice to support themselves; that truth must give way to dissimulation, honesty to convenience, and humanity itself to the reigning of interest. The whole of this mystery of iniquity is called the reason of state.
honesty war integrity
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
case sort taught treason
I know that many have been taught to think that moderation, in a case like this, is a sort of treason
becomes cannot ends indeed obtained society
Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.
chains exact liberty moral proportion qualified
What is liberty without...virtue? It is...madness, without restraint.Men are qualified for liberty in exact proportion to their dispositionto put moral chains upon their own appetites.
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.
birth given neither nor preference unjust unnatural
Some decent, regulated preeminence, some preference given to birth, is neither unnatural nor unjust nor impolite
forget
So to be patriots as not to forget that we are gentlemen.
arises good mischief words
A very good part of the mischief that vex the world arises from words
america amuse men savage serves stories uncouth
Young man, there is America, which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners.
despair work
Never despair, but if you do, work in despair