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

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
Love
Taxation
Taxes
Please
Wise
Politics
Business
Given
Men

More quotes by Edmund Burke

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A good parson once said that where mystery begins religion ends. Cannot I say, as truly at least, of human laws, that where mystery begins justice ends?
Edmund Burke
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To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.
Edmund Burke
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In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature.
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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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Humanity cannot be degraded by humiliation.
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Our manners, our civilization, and all the good things connected with manners and civilization, have, in this European world of ours, depended for ages upon two principles: I mean the spirit of a gentleman, and the spirit of religion.
Edmund Burke
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Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings.
Edmund Burke
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What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!
Edmund Burke
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The esteem of wise and good men is the greatest of all temporal encouragements to virtue and it is a mark of an abandoned spirit to have no regard to it.
Edmund Burke
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It is by imitation, far more than by precept, that we learn everything and what we learn thus, we acquire not only more effectually, but more pleasantly.
Edmund Burke
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All the forces of darkness need to succeed ... is for the people to do nothing.
Edmund Burke
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No government ought to exist for the purpose of checking the prosperity of its people or to allow such a principle in its policy.
Edmund Burke
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The parties are the gamesters but government keeps the table, and is sure to be the winner in the end.
Edmund Burke
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And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them.
Edmund Burke
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Applaud us when we run, Console us when we fall, Cheer us when we recover.
Edmund Burke
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Circumspection and caution are part of wisdom.
Edmund Burke
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Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society.
Edmund Burke
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The great inlet by which a colour for oppression has entered into the world is by one man's pretending to determine concerning the happiness of another.
Edmund Burke
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The more accurately we search into the human mind, the stronger traces we everywhere find of his wisdom who made it.
Edmund Burke
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Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.
Edmund Burke