Quotes from Edmund Burke

So far is it from being true that we acquired a right by the Revolution to elect our kings that, if we had possessed it before, the English nation did at that time most solemnly renounce and abdicate it, for themselves and for all their posterity forever.

and social manners. All these (in their way) are good things, too; and without them, liberty is not a benefit whilst it lasts, and is not likely to continue long. The effect of liberty to individuals is, that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations, which may be soon turned into complaints. Prudence would dictate this in the case of separate, insulated, private men. But liberty, when men act

Few things discover the state of the arts amongst people more certainly than the presents that are made to them by foreigners.

timid piety, which utterly disqualifies for government;

_Stulti est dixisse, Non putaram_.

there was no foreign war, because this prince was always ready for war.

they never thought of entering into any alliance against them; they equally neglected the other obvious method to prevent their incursions, which was, to carry the war into the invaders' country.

You will smile here at the consistency of those democratists who, when they are not on their guard, treat the humbler part of the community with the greatest contempt, whilst, at the same time, they pretend to make them the depositories of all power.

What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!

I have often observed, that on mimicking the looks and gestures of angry, or placid, or frighted, or daring men, I have involuntarily found my mind turned to that passion, whose appearance I endeavored to imitate; nay, I am convinced it is hard to avoid it, though one strove to separate the passion from its correspondent gestures. Our minds and bodies are so closely and intimately connected, that one is incapable of pain or pleasure without the other.

Great designs may be started and the spirit of them inspired by enthusiasts, but cool heads are required to bring them into form.

Stephen felt personally these inconveniences; but because the evil was too stubborn to be redressed at once, he resolved to proceed gradually

Who but a tyrant (a name expressive of every thing which can vitiate and degrade human nature) could think of seizing on the property of men, unaccused, unheard, untried, by whole descriptions, by hundreds and thousands together?

he was, indeed, arrived at that pitch of greatness, that the means of his ruin could only be found in his own family.

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. We balance inconveniences; we give and take; we remit some rights, that we may enjoy others; and we choose rather to be happy citizens than subtle disputants.

Man is a most unwise, and a most wise, being. The individual is foolish. The multitude, for the moment, is foolish, when they act without deliberation; but the species is wise, and when time is given to it, as a species it almost always acts right.

lie together in one short sentence: namely, that we have acquired a right 1. To choose our own governors. 2. To cashier them for misconduct. 3. To frame a government for ourselves. This new, and hitherto unheard-of bill of rights

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797) Irish orator, philosopher, & politician

Perché il male trionfi è sufficiente che i buoni rinuncino all'azione.

All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law; and those who have most to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous.

I readily admit (indeed I should lay it down as a fundamental principle) that in a republican government, which has a democratic basis, the rich do require an additional security above what is necessary to them in monarchies. They are subject to envy, and through envy to oppression.

Qual é a utilidade de discutir o direito abstrato de um homem a alimentos ou medicamentos? A questão é sobre o método de adquiri-los e administrá-los. Nessa deliberação, eu sempre aconselho a pedir a ajuda do agricultor e do médico em vez do professor de metafísica.

The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.