Edmund Burke Quotes - Page 16

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• We set ourselves to bite the hand that feeds us.

  Edmund Burke

  Hands, Bites, Ingratitude

  Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770)

  14 Copy quote

• There are three estates in Parliament but in the Reporters' Gallery yonder there sits a Fourth Estate more important far than they all. It is not a figure of speech or witty saying, it is a literal fact, very momentous to us in these times.

  Edmund Burke

  Witty, Knowledge, Important

  8 Copy quote

• The love of lucre, though sometimes carried to a ridiculous excess, a vicious excess, is the grand cause of prosperity to all States.

  Edmund Burke

  Excess, Causes, Ridiculous

  Edmund Burke (2008). “The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke”, p.455, Cosimo, Inc.

  7 Copy quote

• Laws are commanded to hold their tongues among arms; and tribunals fall to the ground with the peace they are no longer able to uphold.

  Edmund Burke

  War, Fall, Law

  Edmund Burke (2014). “Revolutionary Writings: Reflections on the Revolution in France and the First Letter on a Regicide Peace”, p.31, Cambridge University Press

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• Tyrants seldom want pretexts.

  Edmund Burke

  Peace, War, Tyrants

  'Letter to a Member of the National Assembly' (1791) p. 25

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• 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

  8 Copy quote

• There is a time when the hoary head of inveterate abuse will neither draw reverence nor obtain protection.

  Edmund Burke

  Abuse, Protection, Reverence

  Edmund Burke, James BURKE (Barrister-at-Law.) (1854). “The Speeches of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, with Memoir and Historical Introductions. By James Burke”, p.178

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• It is for the most part in our skill in manners, and in the observations of time and place and of decency in general, that what is called taste by way of distinction consists; and which is in reality no other than a more refined judgment.

  Edmund Burke

  Reality, Skills, Way

  7 Copy quote

• The poorest being that crawls on earth, contending to save itself from injustice and oppression, is an object respectable in the eyes of God and man.

  Edmund Burke

  Eye, Men, Earth

  Edmund Burke (1826). “The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke”, p.93

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• I despair of ever receiving the same degree of pleasure from the most exalted performances of genius which I felt in childhood from pieces which my present judgment regards as trifling and contemptible.

  Edmund Burke

  Childhood, Romance, Despair

  4 Copy quote

• Man acts from adequate motives relative to his interest, and not on metaphysical speculations.

  Edmund Burke

  Men, Adequate, Metaphysical

  Edmund Burke, James BURKE (Barrister-at-Law.) (1854). “The Speeches of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, with Memoir and Historical Introductions. By James Burke”, p.115

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• It is hard to say whether doctors of law or divinity have made the greater advances in the lucrative business of mystery.

  Edmund Burke

  Doctors, Law, Justice

  Edmund Burke, Ian Harris (1993). “Pre-Revolutionary Writings”, p.50, Cambridge University Press

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• In such a strait the wisest may well be perplexed and the boldest staggered.

  Edmund Burke

  Wisdom, May, Wells

  Edmund Burke (1852). “The Works and Correspondence of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke”, p.161

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• The esteem of wise and good men is the greatest of all temporal encouragements to virtue; and it is a mark of an abandoned spirit to have no regard to it.

  Edmund Burke

  Wise, Encouragement, Good Man

  5 Copy quote

• In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature.

  Edmund Burke

  Law, Giving, Community

  Edmund Burke (1999). “The Portable Edmund Burke”, p.285, Penguin

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• Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found.

  Edmund Burke

  Liberty, Abstract, Found

  Speech 'On Conciliation with America' 22 March 1775

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• Delusion and weakness produce not one mischief the less, because they are universal.

  Edmund Burke

  Weakness, Produce, Delusion

  Edmund Burke (1852). “The Works and Correspondence of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke”, p.313

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• For there is in mankind an unfortunate propensity to make themselves, their views and their works, the measure of excellence in every thing whatsoever

  Edmund Burke

  Views, Excellence, Mankind

  Edmund Burke (1824). “A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful”, p.102

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• The question is not whether you have a right to render people miserable, but whether it is not in your best interest to make them happy.

  Edmund Burke

  People, Miserable, Interest

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• It is by bribing, not so often by being bribed, that wicked politicians bring ruin on mankind. Avarice is a rival to the pursuits of many.

  Edmund Burke

  Wicked, Rivals, Ruins

  Edmund Burke (1804). “Maxims and opinions, moral, political and economical, with characters, from the works of ... Edmund Burke”, p.15

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• They made and recorded a sort of institute and digest of anarchy, called the rights of man.

  Edmund Burke

  Men, Rights, Anarchy

  Edmund Burke, James BURKE (Barrister-at-Law.) (1854). “The Speeches of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, with Memoir and Historical Introductions. By James Burke”, p.430

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• The nature of things is, I admit, a sturdy adversary.

  Edmund Burke

  Sturdy, Adversaries

  Edmund Burke (1839). “The Works of Edmund Burke ...”, p.474

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• Where two motives, neither of them perfectly justifiable, may be assigned, the worst has the chance of being preferred.

  Edmund Burke

  Two, Political, May

  Edmund Burke (2008). “The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke”, p.343, Cosimo, Inc.

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• I cannot stand forward, and give praise or blame to any thing which relates to human actions, and human concerns, on a simple view of the subject as it stands stripped of every relation, in all the nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction. Circumstances (which with some gentlemen pass for nothing) give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing colour, and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.

  Edmund Burke

  Simple, Reality, Views

  4 Copy quote

• It is the function of a judge not to make but to declare the law, according to the golden mete-wand of the law and not by the crooked cord of discretion.

  Edmund Burke

  Law, Judging, Golden

  4 Copy quote

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