Quotes from Edmund Burke

Laws, like houses, lean on one another.

A great empire and little minds go ill together.

A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.

There ought to be system of manners in every nation which a well-formed mind would be disposed to relish. To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.

Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.

Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.

Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.

He was not merely a chip off the old block, but the old block itself.

To execute laws is a royal office; to execute orders is not to be a king. However, a political executive magistracy, though merely such, is a great trust.

Neither the few nor the many have a right to act merely by their will, in any matter connected with duty, trust, engagement, or obligation.

The love of lucre, though sometimes carried to a ridiculous excess, a vicious excess, is the grand cause of prosperity to all States.

That the greatest security of the people, against the encroachments and usurpations of their superiors, is to keep the Spirit of Liberty constantly awake, is an undeniable truth

The traveller has reached the end of the journey!

The march of the human mind is slow.

They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.

Tyrants seldom want pretexts.

Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skills. Our antagonist is our helper.

Adversity is a severe instructor. ... He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Mere parsimony is not economy . . . expense, and great expense, may be an essential part of true economy.

Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement.

Well is it known that ambition can creep as well as soar.