Edmund Burke Quotes About Understanding

Quotes about: Understanding

• I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.

  Edmund Burke

  Understanding, Planning, Observation

  Edmund Burke (1792). “Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London, Relative to that Event: In a Letter Intended to Have Been Sent to a Gentleman in Paris”, p.175

• Many of the greatest tyrants on the records of history have begun their reigns in the fairest manner. But the truth is, this unnatural power corrupts both the heart and the understanding.

  Edmund Burke

  Heart, Tyrants, Political

  Edmund Burke (1858). “The Inherent Evils of All State Governments Demonstrated; Being a Reprint of ... “A Vindication of Natural Society.” With Notes and an Appendix, Etc”, p.19

• Religion, to have any force upon men's understandings,--indeed, to exist at all,--must be supposed paramount to law, and independent for its substance upon any human institution, else it would be the absurdest thing in the world,--an acknowledged cheat.

  Edmund Burke

  Independent, Men, Law

  Edmund Burke (1852). “The Works and Correspondence Of...Edmund Burke”, p.26

• Unsociable humors are contracted in solitude, which will, in the end, not fail of corrupting the understanding as well as the manners, and of utterly disqualifying a man for the satisfactions and duties of life. Men must be taken as they are, and we neither make them or ourselves better by flying from or quarreling with them.

  Edmund Burke

  Taken, Men, Understanding

• There is nothing in the world really beneficial that does not lie within the reach of an informed understanding and a well-protected pursuit.

  Edmund Burke

  Lying, Understanding, Doe

• Facts are to the mind what food is to the body. On the due digestion of the former depend the strength and wisdom of the one, just as vigor and health depend on the other. The wisest in council, the ablest in debate, and the most agreeable companion in the commerce of human life, is that man who has assimilated to his understanding the greatest number of facts.

  Edmund Burke

  Men, Numbers, Understanding

• It is from this absolute indifference and tranquillity of the mind, that mathematical speculations derive some of the most considerable advantages; because there is nothing to interest the imagination; because the judgment sits free and unbiased to examine the point. All proportions, every arrangement of quantity, is alike to the understanding, because the same truths result to it from all; from greater from lesser, from equality and inequality.

  Edmund Burke

  Imagination, Understanding, Mind

• He that borrows the aid of an equal understanding doubles his own; he that uses that of a superior elevates his own to the stature of that he contemplates.

  Edmund Burke

  Understanding, Use, Aids

• He who calls in the aid of an equal understanding doubles his own; and he who profits by a superior understanding raises his powers to a level with the height of the superior standing he unites with.

  Edmund Burke

  Advice, Understanding, Levels

• Is it in destroying and pulling down that skill is displayed? The shallowest understanding, the rudest hand, is more than equal to that task.

  Edmund Burke

  Hands, Skills, Understanding

  Edmund Burke (2016). “Delphi Complete Works of Edmund Burke (Illustrated)”, p.1511, Delphi Classics

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