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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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Thank God, men that art greatly guilty are never wise.
Edmund Burke
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It looks to me to be narrow and pedantic to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal justice to this great public contest. I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people.
Edmund Burke
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Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves.
Edmund Burke
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To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.
Edmund Burke
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I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.
Edmund Burke
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It is the nature of tyranny and rapacity never to learn moderation from the ill-success of first oppressions on the contrary, all oppressors, all men thinking highly of the methods dictated by their nature, attribute the frustration of their desires to the want of sufficient rigor.
Edmund Burke
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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.
Edmund Burke
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Good company, lively conversation, and the endearments of friendship fill the mind with great pleasure.
Edmund Burke
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Falsehood is a perennial spring.
Edmund Burke
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The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.
Edmund Burke
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Free trade is not based on utility but on justice.
Edmund Burke
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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.
Edmund Burke
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I decline the election. It has ever been my rule through life, to observe a proportion between my efforts and my objects. I have never been remarkable for a bold, active, and sanguine pursuit of advantages that are personal to myself.
Edmund Burke
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Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.
Edmund Burke
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It is by sympathy we enter into the concerns of others, that we are moved as they are moved, and are never suffered to be indifferent spectators of almost anything which men can do or suffer. For sympathy may be considered as a sort of substitution, by which we are put into the place of another man, and affected in many respects as he is affected.
Edmund Burke
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If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.
Edmund Burke
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Curiosity is the most superficial of all the affections it changes its object perpetually it has an appetite which is very sharp, but very easily satisfied, and it has always an appearance of giddiness, restlessness and anxiety.
Edmund Burke
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When slavery is established in any part of the world, those who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom.
Edmund Burke
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A very great part of the mischiefs that vex the world arises from words.
Edmund Burke
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God has sometimes converted wickedness into madness and it is to the credit of human reason that men who are not in some degree mad are never capable of being in the highest degree wicked.
Edmund Burke