Quote

When ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated. From that moment, we have no compass to govern us, nor can we know distinctly to what port to steer.

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
Steer
Life
Rules
Steers
Loss
Port
Opinion
Govern
Taken
Moment
Compass
Away
Opinions
Estimated
Moments
Possibly
Distinctly
Cannot
Ancient

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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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Crimes lead into one another. They who are capable of being forgers, are capable of being incendiaries.
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A good parson once said that where mystery begins religion ends. Cannot I say, as truly at least, of human laws, that where mystery begins justice ends?
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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.
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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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As the rose-tree is composed of the sweetest flowers and the sharpest thorns, as the heavens are sometimes overcast—alternately tempestuous and serene—so is the life of man intermingled with hopes and fears, with joys and sorrows, with pleasure and pain.
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A great empire and little minds go ill together.
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It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.
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Government is the exercise of all the great qualities of the human mind.
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In all forms of government the people is the true legislator.
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Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty.
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Though ugliness be the opposite of beauty, it is not the opposite to proportion and fitness for it is possible that a thing may be very ugly with any proportions, and with a perfect fitness for any use.
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All that needs to be done for evil to prevail is good men doing nothing.
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Wars are just to those to whom they are necessary.
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Genuine simplicity of heart is a healing and cementing principle.
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Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.
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Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.
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Dogs are indeed the most social, affectionate, and amiable animals of the whole brute creation.
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Of this stamp is the cant of, Not men, but measures.
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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.
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