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All that needs to be done for evil to prevail is good men doing nothing.

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
Prevail
Liberty
Evil
Nothing
Done
Needs
Good
Men

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The greatest crimes do not arise from a want of feeling for others but from an over-sensibilit y for ourselves and an over-indulgence to our own desires
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Make the Revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions.
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Ambition can creep as well as soar.
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To be struck with His power, it is only necessary to open our eyes.
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A jealous lover lights his torch from the firebrand of the fiend.
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If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.
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Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.
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You had that action and counteraction which, in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers draws out the harmony of the universe.
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Between craft and credulity, the voice of reason is stifled.
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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.
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All the forces of darkness need to succeed ... is for the people to do nothing.
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Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.
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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.
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I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.
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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.
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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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A definition may be very exact, and yet go but a very little way towards informing us of the nature of the thing defined.
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Men have no right to what is not reasonable, and to what is not for their benefit.
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What is it we all seek for in an election? To answer its real purposes, you must first possess the means of knowing the fitness of your man and then you must retain some hold upon him by personal obligation or dependence.
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Taxing is an easy business. Any projector can contrive new compositions, any bungler can add to the old.
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