Edmund Burke Quotes

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

Good, Men, Evil

It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.
Edmund Burke

Public, General, Popular

You can never plan the future by the past.
Edmund Burke

Time, Future, Past

Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.
Edmund Burke

History, Repeat, Destined

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

Nothing, Made, Mistake

Our patience will achieve more than our force.
Edmund Burke

Patience, Achieve, Force

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Edmund Burke

Good, Conscience, Silent

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
Edmund Burke

Bad, Worst, Tyranny

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

Politics, Good, Men

But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
Edmund Burke

Wisdom, Greatest, Liberty

Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.
Edmund Burke

Nothing, Promise, Hypocrisy

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

Justice, Humanity, May

Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.
Edmund Burke

Lie, Sin, Tools

By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.
Edmund Burke

May, Through, Nation

Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.
Edmund Burke

Long, Liberty, Cannot

Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
Edmund Burke

Opinion, Judgment, Industry

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.
Edmund Burke

Government, Human, Act

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
Edmund Burke

Give, Delusion, Liberties

Beauty is the promise of happiness.
Edmund Burke

Beauty, Happiness, Promise

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.
Edmund Burke

Religion, Art, Creation

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

Men, Wine, Moral

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

Justice, Made, Liberty

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

Forward, Selfish, Spirit

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.
Edmund Burke

Democracy, Cruel, Majority

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

Power, Hope, Nothing

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Biography

Nationality: Irish

Type: Statesman

Born: January 12, 1729

Died: July 9, 1797

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Find on Amazon: Edmund Burke

Cite this Page: Citation

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