Quote

Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.

Edmund Burke

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Edmund Burke
Age: 68 †
Born: 1729
Born: January 12
Died: 1797
Died: July 9
Philosopher
Politician
Statesman
Writer
Dublin city
Cannot
Somewhere
Power
Exist
Without
Unless
Must
Liberty
Within
Controlling
Society
Placed
Upon
Virtuous
Less
Appetite

More quotes by Edmund Burke

Image
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.
Edmund Burke
Image
I am convinced that we have a degree of delight, and that no small one, in the real misfortunes and pain of others
Edmund Burke
Image
Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.
Edmund Burke
Image
Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.
Edmund Burke
Image
For there is in mankind an unfortunate propensity to make themselves, their views and their works, the measure of excellence in every thing whatsoever
Edmund Burke
Image
The wisdom of our ancestors.
Edmund Burke
Image
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
Image
There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity - the law of nature and of nations.
Edmund Burke
Image
Dogs are indeed the most social, affectionate, and amiable animals of the whole brute creation.
Edmund Burke
Image
The nature of things is, I admit, a sturdy adversary.
Edmund Burke
Image
History is a pact between the dead, the living, and the yet unborn.
Edmund Burke
Image
Evil prevails when good men fail to act.
Edmund Burke
Image
History consists, for the greater part, of the miseries brought upon the world by pride, ambition, avarice, revenge, lust, sedition, hypocrisy, ungoverned zeal, and all the train of disorderly appetite.
Edmund Burke
Image
Circumspection and caution are part of wisdom.
Edmund Burke
Image
Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy. If parsimony were to be considered as one of the kinds of that virtue, there is, however, another and a higher economy. Economy is a distinctive virtue, and consists not in saving, but in selection.
Edmund Burke
Image
No government ought to exist for the purpose of checking the prosperity of its people or to allow such a principle in its policy.
Edmund Burke
Image
Crimes lead into one another. They who are capable of being forgers, are capable of being incendiaries.
Edmund Burke
Image
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
Image
Evils we have had continually calling for reformation, and reformations more grievous than any evils.
Edmund Burke
Image
The science of constructing a commonwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it, is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught a priori. Nor is it a short experience that can instruct us in that practical science, because the real effects of moral causes are not always immediate.
Edmund Burke