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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.

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
Give
Public
Dress
Giving
Law
Lawyer
Community
Dresses
Sanction
Force
Direction
Legislature
Sense
Effect
Sanctions
True
General
Inclination
Ends
Follow
Technical
Form
Effects
Specific

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To prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to deprecate the value of freedom itself.
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Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.
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Men have no right to what is not reasonable, and to what is not for their benefit.
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Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants.
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Vice incapacitates a man from all public duty it withers the powers of his under- standing, and makes his mind paralytic.
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Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves.
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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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Where two motives, neither of them perfectly justifiable, may be assigned, the worst has the chance of being preferred.
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Gambling is a principle inherent in human nature.
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An extreme rigor is sure to arm everything against it.
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A thing may look specious in theory, and yet be ruinous in practice a thing may look evil in theory, and yet be in practice excellent.
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No men can act with effect who do not act in concert no men can act in concert who do not act with confidence no men can act with confidence who are not bound together with common opinions, common affections, and common interests.
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The love of lucre, though sometimes carried to a ridiculous excess, a vicious excess, is the grand cause of prosperity to all States.
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There is no safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men, and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.
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The very name of a politician, a statesman, is sure to cause terror and hatred it has always connected with it the ideas of treachery, cruelty, fraud, and tyranny.
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They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate.
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History is a pact between the dead, the living, and the yet unborn.
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Crimes lead into one another. They who are capable of being forgers, are capable of being incendiaries.
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Men who undertake considerable things, even in a regular way, ought to give us ground to presume ability.
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