A very great part of the mischiefs that vex this world arises from words.


Edmund Burke

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More Edmund Burke

The most important of all revolutions, a revolution in sentiments, manners and moral opinions.
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Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
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But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; fo...
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The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.
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Ambition can creep as well as soar.
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One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.
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There is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under ...
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She is not made to be the admiration of all, but the happiness of one.
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My vigour relents. I pardon something to the spirit of liberty.
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The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
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But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; ...
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The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up a...
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But the religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resist...
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What shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart.
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The balance of power.
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Of this stamp is the cant of, not men, but measures.
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You had that action and counteraction which, in the natural and in the political world, from the re...
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I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against an whole people.
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There was an ancient Roman lawyer, of great fame in the history of Roman jurisprudence, whom they c...
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The nerve that never relaxes, the eye that never blanches, the thought that never wanders, the purp...
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If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.
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Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times, and in a...
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It looks to me to be narrow and pedantic to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal justice to this gr...
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Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, un...
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Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that thes...
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And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the h...
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All government--indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act--is f...
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Learning will be cast into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude.
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No sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing voice of Christian charity.
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We must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation.
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Applaud us when we run, Console us when we fall, Cheer us when we recover.
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The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the nece...
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I know of nothing sublime which is not some modification of power.
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Among precautions against ambition, it may not be amiss to take precautions against our own. I must ...
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Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, eve...
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Woman is not made to be the admiration of all, but the happiness of one.
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Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.
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Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
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The objects of a financier are, then, to secure an ample revenue; to impose it with judgment and equ...
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You can never plan the future by the past.
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A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a stat...
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Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminati...
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Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill ...
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By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.
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People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be...
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Bad laws are the worst form of tyranny.
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In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical ...
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Laws, like houses, lean on one another.
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There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law...
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A people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhoo...
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Young man, there is America, which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories...
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To please universally was the object of his life; but to tax and to please, no more than to love and...
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It is undoubtedly the business of ministers very much to consult the inclinations of the people, but...
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But a good patriot, and a true politician, always considers how he shall make the most of the existi...
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Society is a partnership in all science, a partnership in all art, a partnership in every virtue and...
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Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement. No sound ought to be heard in the chur...
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A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood.
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Fraud and prevarication are servile vices. They sometimes grow out of the necessities, always out of...
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The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.
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That the greatest security of the people, against the encroachments and usurpations of their superio...
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The distinguishing part of our Constitution is its liberty. To preserve that liberty inviolate seems...
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I did not obey your instructions. No. I conformed to the instructions of truth and Nature, and maint...
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Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these ...
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If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the p...
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There is a courageous wisdom; there is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution but...
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What is it we all seek for in an election? To answer its real purposes, you must first possess the m...
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Education is the cheap defence of nations.
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Contempt is not a thing to be despised.
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I cannot conceive how any man can have brought himself to that pitch of presumption, to consider his...
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Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the stri...
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Tell me what are the prevailing sentiments that occupy the minds of your young men, and I will tell ...
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I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.
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We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.
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A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
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It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.
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I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threa...
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There is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the ...
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When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice...
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Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.
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Now, as a law directed against the mass of the nation has not the nature of a reasonable institution...
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Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.
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No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
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Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, und...
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Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.
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An event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak, and impossible to be silent.
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Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be...
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When ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated. From ...
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Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.
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They defend their errors as if they were defending their inheritance.
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Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partne...
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A populace never rebels from passion for attack, but from impatience of suffering.
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Restraint and discipline and examples of virtue and justice. These are the things that form the educ...
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In the groves of their academy, at the end of every vista, you see nothing but the gallows.
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Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.
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There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
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Taxing is an easy business. Any projector can contrive new compositions, any bungler can add to the ...
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To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.
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I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much ...
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If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be ...
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To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.
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Our patience will achieve more than our force.
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Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests ea...
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Good order is the foundation of all great things.
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The yielding of the weak is the concession to fear.
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When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in th...
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If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.
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What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man.
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The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.
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Tyrants seldom want pretexts.
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Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.
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And having looked to government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the ha...
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In the weakness of one kind of authority, and in the fluctuation of all, the officers of an army wil...
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It is from this absolute indifference and tranquillity of the mind, that mathematical speculations d...
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Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt o...
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Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upo...
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The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.
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Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other
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Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.
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Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times, and in a...
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In this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of polity the image of a relation in blood;...
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A nation is not conquered which is perpetually to be conquered.
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Spain: A whale stranded upon the coast of Europe.
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He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helpe...
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In a democracy the majority of citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the...
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The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dom...
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Great men are the guideposts and landmarks in the state.
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People will not look forward to posterity who will not look backward to their ancestors.
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In doing good, we are generally cold, and languid, and sluggish; and of all things afraid of being t...
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Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.
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The people never give up their liberties, but under some delusion.
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The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it w...
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It looks to me to be narrow and pedantic to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal justice to this gre...
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Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.
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The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One canno...
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Whenever our neighbor's house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our...
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People must be taken as they are, and we should never try make them or ourselves better by quarrelin...
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Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society...
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Custom reconciles us to everything.
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Some degree of novelty must be one of the materials in almost every instrument which works upon the ...
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Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.
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All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is fo...
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Some decent regulated pre-eminence, some preference (not exclusive appropriation) given to birth, i...
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The power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of the most valuable and interesting ...
EDMUND BURKE
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
EDMUND BURKE
A people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manho...
EDMUND BURKE
Young man, there is America--which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with storie...
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Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement.
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Chapter of accidents.
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Men who undertake considerable things, even in a regular way, ought to give us ground to presume ab...
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I am convinced that we have a degree of delight, and that no small one, in the real misfortunes and...
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The greatest crimes do not arise from a want of feeling for others but from an over-sensibility for ...
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It has all the contortions of the sibyl without the inspiration.
EDMUND BURKE
Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference which is, at least, half infidelity.
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A perfect democracy is therefore the most shameless thing in the world.
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That chastity of honour which felt a stain like a wound.
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Writers, especially when they act in a body and with one direction, have great influence on the pub...
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Resolved to die in the last dyke of prevarication.
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No man can mortgage his injustice as a pawn for his fidelity.
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We must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation.
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Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laught...
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It is the function of a judge not to make but to declare the law, according to the golden mete-wand...
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The cold neutrality of an impartial judge.
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There is however a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
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Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it...
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Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair
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Turn over a new leaf.
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Next to love, sympathy is the divinest passion of the human heart
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But the concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.
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Vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.
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What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man.
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The body of all true religion consists, to be sure, in obedience to the will of the Sovereign of th...
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The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic e...
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The men of England--the men, I mean of light and leading in England.
EDMUND BURKE
Calamity is man's true touchstone
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Illustrious Predecessor.
EDMUND BURKE
Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.
EDMUND BURKE
A good parson once said that where mystery begins religion ends. Cannot I say, as truly at least, ...
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When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifi...
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Falsehood is a perennial spring.
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All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
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But what is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for...
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All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
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Better be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident security.
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Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises; for never intending to go beyond promises; i...
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Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty.
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Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.
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It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to...
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The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.
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Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.
EDMUND BURKE
Frugality is founded on the principal that all riches have limits.
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The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
EDMUND BURKE
In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upo...
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All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
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To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
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Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.
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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
EDMUND BURKE
It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.
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But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and ...
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The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please; we ought to see what it w...
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He had no failings which were not owing to a noble cause; to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immoder...
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