Edmund Burke Quotes | GloryQuotes

Edmund Burke Quotes About Freedom

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

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

Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.

Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.

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.

The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.

Edmund Burke Quotes About Spiritual

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

Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.

Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.

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.

More Quotes by Edmund Burke

All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.

It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.

We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.

To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.

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

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.

Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.

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

Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society.

A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.

Whenever our neighbour's house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own.

If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.

All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice.

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

The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.

Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.

If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.

The most important of all revolutions, a revolution in sentiments, manners and moral opinions.

Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.

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

I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.

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

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

What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man.

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

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

It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.

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

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

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

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

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

You can never plan the future by the past.

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

Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.

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

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

There is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination.

Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.

Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.

Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement.

Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.

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

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

Education is the cheap defense of nations.

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

Browse 97 quotes attributed to Edmund Burke, listed in the source data as a Irish Statesman, organized around themes such as Freedom, Spiritual, Wisdom. Use the topic links to explore similar quotes, or browse the full author collection in one place.