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Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found.

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
Mere
Liberty
Found
Like
Abstractions
Abstraction
Abstract

More quotes by Edmund Burke

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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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Freedom without virtue is not freedom but license to pursue whatever passions prevail in the intemperate mind man's right to freedom being in exact proportion to his willingness to put chains upon his own appetites the less restraint from within, the more must be imposed from without.
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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.
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Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.
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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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Between craft and credulity, the voice of reason is stifled.
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All virtue which is impracticable is spurious.
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Liberty, without wisdom, is license.
Edmund Burke
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Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.
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All that needs to be done for evil to prevail is good men doing nothing.
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The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone!
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To give freedom is still more easy. It is not necessary to guide it only requires to let go the rein. But to form a free government that is, to temper together these opposite elements of liberty and restraint in one work, requires much thought, deep reflection, a sagacious, powerful, and combining mind.
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Delusion and weakness produce not one mischief the less, because they are universal.
Edmund Burke
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One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.
Edmund Burke
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Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
Edmund Burke
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Society is indeed a contract. ... It is a partnership in all science a partnership in all art a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection.
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Despots govern by terror. They know that he who fears God fears nothing else and therefore they eradicate from the mind, through their Voltaire, their Helvetius, and the rest of that infamous gang, that only sort of fear which generates true courage.
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Learning will be cast into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude.
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The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.
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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