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

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
House
Cannot
Littles
Amiss
Little
Neighbour
Play
Caution
Engines
Whenever
Fire

More quotes by Edmund Burke

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Contempt is not a thing to be despised.
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If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the people think so,and that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of this matter.
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It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.
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In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.
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Nnothing tends more to the corruption of science than to suffer it to stagnate. These waters must be troubled, before they can exert their virtues.
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Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.
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Applaud us when we run, Console us when we fall, Cheer us when we recover.
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It is for the most part in our skill in manners, and in the observations of time and place and of decency in general, that what is called taste by way of distinction consists and which is in reality no other than a more refined judgment.
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Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be so as long as the world endures. Plain good intention, which is as easily discovered at the first view as fraud is surely detected at last, is of no mean force in the government of mankind.
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The greatest crimes do not arise from a want of feeling for others but from an over-sensibilit y for ourselves and an over-indulgence to our own desires
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Is it in destroying and pulling down that skill is displayed? The shallowest understanding, the rudest hand, is more than equal to that task.
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Never, no never, did Nature say one thing, and wisdom another.
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Pleasure of every kind quickly satisfies.
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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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The science of constructing a commonwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it, is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught a priori. Nor is it a short experience that can instruct us in that practical science, because the real effects of moral causes are not always immediate.
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Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.
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Tell me what are the prevailing sentiments that occupy the minds of your young peoples, and I will tell you what is to be the character of the next generation.
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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.
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A people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood.
Edmund Burke
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Fellowship in treason is a bad ground of confidence.
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