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
government want humans
Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants.
mean human-nature reason
Politics ought to be adjusted not to human reasonings but to human nature, of which reason is but a part and by no means the greatest part.
men humanity causes
I own that there is a haughtiness and fierceness in human nature which will cause innumerable broils, place men in what situation you please.
humility humanity humiliation
Humanity cannot be degraded by humiliation.
gambling principles human-nature
Gambling is a principle inherent in human nature.
law justice humanity
It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.
government human men provide provided wants wisdom
Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom.
dip gentle human milk pens
These gentle historians, on the contrary, dip their pens in nothing but the milk of human kindness.
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.