Edmund Burke quotes - page 14

Edmund Burke was an Irish statesman, philosopher, and writer, renowned for his support of constitutional government and his criticism of the French Revolution. A key figure in 18th-century political thought, he deeply influenced conservatism and parliamentary democracy. He is remembered for his eloquence and commitment to balanced and principled governance. Here are 366 of his quotes:

It is reconciled in policy; and politics ought to be adjusted, not to human reasonings, but to human nature; of which the reason is but a part; and by no means the greatest part.

Edmund Burke

Illustrious predecessor.

Edmund Burke

Make the revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions.

Edmund Burke

Somebody has said, that a king may make a nobleman, but he cannot make a gentleman.

Edmund Burke

A thing may look specious in theory, and yet be ruinous in practice a thing may look evil in theory, and yet be in practice excellent.

Edmund Burke

Poetry, with all its obscurity, has a more general as well as a more powerful dominion over the passions than the art of painting.

Edmund Burke

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.

Edmund Burke

Next to love, sympathy is the divinest passion of the human heart.

Edmund Burke

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.

Edmund Burke

The marketplace obliges men, whether they will or not, in pursuing their own selfish interests, to connect the general good with their own individual success.

Edmund Burke

It is hard to say whether the doctors of law or divinity have made the greater advances in the lucrative business of mystery.

Edmund Burke

To drive men from independence to live on alms, is itself great cruelty.

Edmund Burke

My vigour relents, I pardon something to the spirit of liberty.

Edmund Burke

What is it we all seek for in an election To answer its real purposes, you must first posses the means of knowing the fitness of your man and then you must retain some hold upon him by personal obligation or dependence.

Edmund Burke

The only infallible criterion of wisdom to vulgar judgments - success.

Edmund Burke

Prudence is a quality incompatible with vice, And can never be effectively enlisted in its cause.

Edmund Burke

Spain A whale stranded upon the coast of Europe.

Edmund Burke

It is undoubtedly the business of ministers very much to consult the inclinations of the people, but they ought to take great care that they do not receive that inclination from the few persons who may happen to approach them.

Edmund Burke

Too much idleness, I have observed, fills up a man's time much more completely, and leaves him less his own master, than any other sort of employment whatsoever.

Edmund Burke

When ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated. From that moment we have no compass to govern us, nor can we know distinctly to what port to steer.

Edmund Burke

We scarce ever had a prince, who by fraud, or violence, had not made some infringement on the constitution. We scarce ever had a parliament which knew, when it attempted to set limits to the royal authority, how to set limits to its own. Evils we have had continually calling for reformation, and reformations more grievous than any evils. Our boasted liberty sometimes trodden down, sometimes giddily set up, and ever precariously fluctuating and unsettled; it has only been kept alive by the blasts of continual feuds, wars, and conspiracies.

Edmund Burke

There are few with whom I can communicate so freely as with Pope. But Pope cannot bear every truth. He has a timidity which hinders the full exertion of his faculties, almost as effectually as bigotry cramps those of the general herd of mankind. But whoever is a genuine follower of truth keeps his eye steady upon his guide, indifferent whither he is led, provided that she is the leader. And, my Lord, if it may be properly considered, it were infinitely better to remain possessed by the whole legion of vulgar mistakes, than to reject some, and, at the same time, to retain a fondness for others altogether as absurd and irrational. The first has at least a consistency, that makes a man, however erroneously, uniform at least; but the latter way of proceeding is such an inconsistent chimera and jumble of philosophy and vulgar prejudice, that hardly anything more ridiculous can be conceived.

Edmund Burke