 It is said that twenty-four millions ought to prevail over two hundred thousand. True, if the constitution of a kingdom be a problem of arithmetic.
– Edmund Burke (1729-1797) |
Category Archives: Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke – Compromise and barter
| 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.
– Edmund Burke (1729-1797) |
Edmund Burke – Once intoxicated with power
| Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though for but one year, can never willingly abandon it.
– Edmund Burke (1729-1797) |
Edmund Burke – Those who make the noise
| Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field.
– Edmund Burke (1729-1797) |
Edmund Burke – He that wrestles with us strengthens
| He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
– Edmund Burke (1729-1797) |
Edmund Burke – Manners are more important than laws
| Manners are of more importance than laws. Upon them in a great measure, the Laws depend. The Law touches us but here and there, and now and then. 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. They give their whole form and color to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them.
– Edmund Burke (1729-1797) |
Edmund Burke – When bad men combine, the good must . . .
| When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
– Edmund Burke (1729-1797) |
Edmund Burke – Responsibility of a representative
| Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
– Edmund Burke (1729-1797) |
Edmund Burke – A state without the means of change
| A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
– Edmund Burke (1729-1797) |
Edmund Burke – People will not look forward to posterity
| People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
– Edmund Burke (1729-1797) |
