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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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One source of the sublime is infinity.
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Turn over a new leaf.
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He that accuses all mankind of corruption ought to remember that he is sure to convict only one.
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Not men but measures a sort of charm by which many people get loose from every honorable engagement.
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Government is the exercise of all the great qualities of the human mind.
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Gambling is a principle inherent in human nature.
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Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality.
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It is the function of a judge not to make but to declare the law, according to the golden mete-wand of the law and not by the crooked cord of discretion.
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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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Spain: A whale stranded upon the coast of Europe.
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The moment you abate anything from the full rights of men to each govern himself, and suffer any artificial positive limitation upon those rights, from that moment the whole organization of government becomes a consideration of convenience.
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Corrupt influence is itself the perennial spring of all prodigality, and of all disorder it loads us more than millions of debt takes away vigor from our arms, wisdom from our councils, and every shadow of authority and credit from the most venerable parts of our constitution.
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We set ourselves to bite the hand that feeds us.
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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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Teach me, O lark! with thee to greatly rise, to exalt my soul and lift it to the skies.
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If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.
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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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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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The only training for the heroic is the mundane.
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Nothing so effectually deadens the taste of the sublime as that which is light and radiant.
Edmund Burke