Quote

The essence of tyranny is the enforcement of stupid laws.

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
Enforcement
Tyranny
Laws
Essence
Stupid
Law

More quotes by Edmund Burke

Image
The moment that government appears at market, the principles of the market will be subverted.
Edmund Burke
Image
Equity money is dynamic and debt money is static.
Edmund Burke
Image
The superfluities of a rich nation furnish a better object of trade than the necessities of a poor one. It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.
Edmund Burke
Image
When you fear something, learn as much about it as you can. Knowledge conquers fear.
Edmund Burke
Image
No men can act with effect who do not act in concert no men can act in concert who do not act with confidence no men can act with confidence who are not bound together with common opinions, common affections, and common interests.
Edmund Burke
Image
The person who grieves suffers his passion to grow upon him he indulges it, he loves it but this never happens in the case of actual pain, which no man ever willingly endured for any considerable time.
Edmund Burke
Image
A man is allowed sufficient freedom of thought, provided he knows how to choose his subject properly.... But the scene is changed as you come homeward, and atheism or treason may be the names given in Britain to what would be reason and truth if asserted in China.
Edmund Burke
Image
The love of lucre, though sometimes carried to a ridiculous excess, a vicious excess, is the grand cause of prosperity to all States.
Edmund Burke
Image
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
Image
Not men but measures a sort of charm by which many people get loose from every honorable engagement.
Edmund Burke
Image
To prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to deprecate the value of freedom itself.
Edmund Burke
Image
Vice incapacitates a man from all public duty it withers the powers of his under- standing, and makes his mind paralytic.
Edmund Burke
Image
Good company, lively conversation, and the endearments of friendship fill the mind with great pleasure.
Edmund Burke
Image
Old religious factions are volcanoes burned out on the lava and ashes and squalid scoriae of old eruptions grow the peaceful olive, the cheering vine and the sustaining corn.
Edmund Burke
Image
The cause of a wrong taste is a defect of judgment.
Edmund Burke
Image
As mankind becomes more enlightened to know their real interests, they will esteem the value of agriculture they will find it in their natural--their destined occupation.
Edmund Burke
Image
Pleasure of every kind quickly satisfies.
Edmund Burke
Image
The true way to mourn the dead is to take care of the living who belong to them.
Edmund Burke
Image
The question is not whether you have a right to render people miserable, but whether it is not in your best interest to make them happy.
Edmund Burke
Image
Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
Edmund Burke