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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.

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
Men
Honest
Decision
Wisdom
Possible
Belief
Acting
Steadiness
Evil
Believing
Believe
Safety

More quotes by Edmund Burke

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Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.
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That cardinal virtue, temperance.
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Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.
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Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe.
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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.
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To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.
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A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.
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The cause of a wrong taste is a defect of judgment.
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The only kind of sublimity which a painter or sculptor should aim at is to express by certain proportions and positions of limbs and features that strength and dignity of mind, and vigor and activity of body, which enables men to conceive and execute great actions.
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Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant.
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Turbulent, discontented men of quality, in proportion as they are puffed up with personal pride and arrogance, generally despise their own order.
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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.
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This sort of people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man that they have totally forgotten his nature.
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Teach me, O lark! with thee to greatly rise, to exalt my soul and lift it to the skies.
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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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Nothing, indeed, but the possession of some power can with any certainty discover what at the bottom is the true character of any man.
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Somebody has said, that a king may make a nobleman but he cannot make a gentleman.
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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.
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The truly sublime is always easy, and always natural.
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Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves.
Edmund Burke