Why should I know Edmund Burke?

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

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

“All who have ever written on government are unanimous, that among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.”

“And having looked to the government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them.”

“Art is a partnership not only between those who are living but between those who are dead and those who are yet to be born.”

“Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.”

“Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty.”

“Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security.”

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

“Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.”

“Freedom and not servitude is the cure of anarchy; as religion, and not atheism, is the true remedy for superstition.”

“Good order is the foundation of all things.”

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

“I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.”

“If an idiot were to tell you the same story every day for a year, you would end by believing it.”

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

“It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice, tell me I ought to do.”

“It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.”

“Men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”

“Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.”

“Never, no, never did Nature say one thing and Wisdom say another.”

“No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.”

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”

“Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.”

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

“Our patience will achieve more than our force.”

“People never give up their liberties but under some delusion.”

“People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.”

“Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.”

“Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.”

“Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.”

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

“The greater the power the more dangerous the abuse.”

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

“The same sun which gilds all nature, and exhilarates the whole creation, does not shine upon disappointed ambition.”

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

“Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.”

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

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

“We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.”

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

“When bad men combine, the good must associate else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”

“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.”

“Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.”

“Woman is not made to be the admiration of all, but the happiness of one.”

“Writers, especially when they act in a body and with one direction, have great influence on the public mind.”

“You can never plan the future by the past.”