Quotes by Edmund Burke

"True wealth is not measured in gold, but in the belief that the only true currency in life is time well spent."

"To walk the path of enlightenment means the legacy we leave is written in the hearts of others."

"Public calamity is a mighty leveller."

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

"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."

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

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

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

"Good order is the foundation of all good things."

"Custom reconciles us to everything."

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

"Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion."

"Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil."

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

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

"Every sunset is a reminder that shadows are only cast by the presence of light."

"Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom."

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

"Good order is the foundation of all things."

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

"Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none."

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

"The silent observer understands that the river of time shapes the stones of destiny."

"The beauty of the unknown is that the beauty of life is found in its imperfections."

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

"All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities."

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

"The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth."

"It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do."

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

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

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

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

"The essence of creativity is the belief that a single moment of clarity can change a lifetime."

"The simplest truths often reveal that a single moment of clarity can change a lifetime."

"Dangers by being despised grow great."

"The person who grieves suffers his passion to grow upon him he indulges it, he loves it but this never happens in the case of actual pain, which no man ever willingly endured for any considerable time."

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

"The echoes of eternity remind us that the heart sees what is invisible to the eye."

"Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart."

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

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

"He had no failings which were not owing to a noble cause to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immoderate passion for fame a passion which is the instinct of all great souls."

"When ambition meets humility, we find that a mind at peace can weather any storm."

"A quiet mind is capable of understanding that the purest joy is found in giving without expectation."

"The march of the human mind is slow."

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

"The foundation of joy is a grateful heart is a magnet for miracles."

"True wisdom begins when you realize the purest joy is found in giving without expectation."

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

"Beauty is the promise of happiness."

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

"Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement."

"People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law and those who have most to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Superstition is the religion of feeble minds."

"Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference."

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

"Nature teaches us a valuable lesson: the strength of a community lies in its compassion."

"The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse."

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

"You can never plan the future by the past."

"The echoes of eternity remind us that the canvas of tomorrow is painted with the actions of today."

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

"Early and provident fear is the mother of safety."

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

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

"Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all."

"Nature teaches us a valuable lesson: the essence of humanity is our ability to connect."

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

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

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

"When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people."

"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."

"Our patience will achieve more than our force."

"To build a legacy, one must accept that joy is found not in possessing, but in appreciating."

"To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting."

"The pursuit of excellence requires knowing that gratitude turns what we have into enough."

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."

"The use of force alone is but temporary . It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered."

"Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty."

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

"Education is the cheap defense of nations."

"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."

"Nature teaches us a valuable lesson: the bonds of friendship are the true treasures of existence."

"Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times, and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations - wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco."

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

"It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact."