Edmund Burke Quotes

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

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

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

The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.

Silence is golden but when it threatens your freedom it's yellow.

Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray, to not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little, shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the hour.

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites…in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to anything but power for their relief.

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

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

The Fate of good men who refuse to become involved in politics is to be ruled by evil men.

When you fear something, learn as much about it as you can. Knowledge conquers fear.

Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

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

Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe.

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

History is a pact between the dead, the living, and the yet unborn.

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

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

Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling... When danger or pain press too nearly, they are incapable of giving any delight, and are simply terrible; but at certain distances, and with certain modifications, they may be, and they are, delightful, as we every day experience.

Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.

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

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.

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.

Old religious factions are volcanoes burned out; on the lava and ashes and squalid scoriae of old eruptions grow the peaceful olive, the cheering vine and the sustaining corn.

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

I dread our own power, and our own ambition; I dread our being too much dreaded... We may say that we shall not abuse this astonishing, and hitherto unheard-of-power. But every other nation will think we shall abuse it. It is impossible but that, sooner or later, this state of things must produce a combination against us which may end in our ruin.

I cannot help concurring with the opinion that an absolute democracy, no more than absolute monarchy, is to be reckoned among the legitimate forms of government.

There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity - the law of nature and of nations.

Despots govern by terror. They know that he who fears God fears nothing else; and therefore they eradicate from the mind, through their Voltaire, their Helvetius, and the rest of that infamous gang, that only sort of fear which generates true courage.

There is no safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men, and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.

The essence of tyranny is the enforcement of stupid laws.

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

People must be taken as they are, and we should never try make them or ourselves better by quarreling with them.

People crushed by law, have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws; and those who have much hope and nothing to lose, will always be dangerous.

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing as they must if they believe they can do nothing. There is nothing worse because the council of despair is declaration of irresponsibility; it is Pilate washing his hands.

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

All men have equal rights, but not to equal things.

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

Those who have been intoxicated with power... can never willingly abandon it.

This sort of people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man that they have totally forgotten his nature.

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

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

Good order is the foundation of all things.

Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament.

You can never plan the future by the past.

A great empire and little minds go ill together.

Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.