Quote

What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!

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
Shadows
Pursue
Shadow
Life

More quotes by Edmund Burke

Image
Evil prevails when good men fail to act.
Edmund Burke
Image
Genuine simplicity of heart is a healing and cementing principle.
Edmund Burke
Image
And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them.
Edmund Burke
Image
There are circumstances in which despair does not imply inactivity.
Edmund Burke
Image
He that accuses all mankind of corruption ought to remember that he is sure to convict only one.
Edmund Burke
Image
The very name of a politician, a statesman, is sure to cause terror and hatred it has always connected with it the ideas of treachery, cruelty, fraud, and tyranny.
Edmund Burke
Image
The most favourable laws can do very little towards the happiness of people when the disposition of the ruling power is adverse to them.
Edmund Burke
Image
Free trade is not based on utility but on justice.
Edmund Burke
Image
A speculative despair is unpardonable where it our duty to act.
Edmund Burke
Image
Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.
Edmund Burke
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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.
Edmund Burke
Image
The wisdom of our ancestors.
Edmund Burke
Image
All the forces of darkness need to succeed ... is for the people to do nothing.
Edmund Burke
Image
All virtue which is impracticable is spurious.
Edmund Burke
Image
Knowledge of those unalterable Relations which Providence has ordained that every thing should bear to every other...To these we should conform in good Earnest and not think to force Nature, and the whole Order of her System, by a Compliance with our Pride, and Folly, to conform to our artificial Regulations.
Edmund Burke
Image
Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society.
Edmund Burke
Image
The moment that government appears at market, the principles of the market will be subverted.
Edmund Burke
Image
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