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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.

Edmund Burke

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Edmund Burke
Age: 68 †
Born: 1729
Born: January 12
Died: 1797
Died: July 9
Philosopher
Politician
Statesman
Writer
Dublin city
Wisdom
Restraint
Possible
Vice
Evil
Folly
Without
Vices
Madness
Greatest
Virtue
Tuition
Liberty
Evils

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Liberty, without wisdom, is license.
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The worthy gentleman who has been snatched from us at the moment of the election, and in the middle of the contest, whilst his desires were as warm and his hopes as eager as ours, has feelingly told us what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue.
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Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.
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When you fear something, learn as much about it as you can. Knowledge conquers fear.
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Over-taxation cost England her colonies of North America.
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It is the nature of tyranny and rapacity never to learn moderation from the ill-success of first oppressions on the contrary, all oppressors, all men thinking highly of the methods dictated by their nature, attribute the frustration of their desires to the want of sufficient rigor.
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Society is indeed a contract. ... It is a partnership in all science a partnership in all art a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection.
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War is the matter which fills all history and consequently the only, or almost the only, view in which we can see the external of political society is in a hostile shape: and the only actions to which we have always seen, and still see, all of them intent, are such as tend to the destruction of one another.
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Among precautions against ambition, it may not be amiss to take precautions against our own. I must fairly say, I dread our own power and our own ambition: I dread our being too much dreaded.
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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.
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The power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of the most valuable and interesting circumstances belonging to it, and that which tends the most to the perpetuation of society itself.
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Tyrants seldom want pretexts.
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The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.
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Law and arbitrary power are at eternal enmity.
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The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.
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He who calls in the aid of an equal understanding doubles his own and he who profits by a superior understanding raises his powers to a level with the height of the superior standing he unites with.
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Between craft and credulity, the voice of reason is stifled.
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Power, in whatever hands, is rarely guilty of too strict limitations on itself.
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Gambling is a principle inherent in human nature.
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Circumspection and caution are part of wisdom.
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