Edmund Burke quotes

“If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.”

— Edmund Burke

“Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.”

— Edmund Burke

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

— Edmund Burke

“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.”

— Edmund Burke

“Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.”

— Edmund Burke

“Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.”

— Edmund Burke

“Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.”

— Edmund Burke

“But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.”

— Edmund Burke

“He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.”

— Edmund Burke

“Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.”

— Edmund Burke

“Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.”

— Edmund Burke

“Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.”

— Edmund Burke

“One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.”

— Edmund Burke

“The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.”

— Edmund Burke

“To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.”

— Edmund Burke

“Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.”

— Edmund Burke

“It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.”

— Edmund Burke

“If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.”

— Edmund Burke

“Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.”

— Edmund Burke

“The most important of all revolutions, a revolution in sentiments, manners and moral opinions.”

— Edmund Burke

“Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times, and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations - wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.”

— Edmund Burke

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

— Edmund Burke

“Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.”

— Edmund Burke

“The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.”

— Edmund Burke

“A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.”

— Edmund Burke

“When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.”

— Edmund Burke

“A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.”

— Edmund Burke

“All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice.”

— Edmund Burke

“Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.”

— Edmund Burke

“Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.”

— Edmund Burke