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Public calamity is a mighty leveller.

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
Calamity
Mighty
Adversity
Public

More quotes by Edmund Burke

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Ambition can creep as well as soar.
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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.
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It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.
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If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.
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If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the people think so,and that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of this matter.
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Teach me, O lark! with thee to greatly rise, to exalt my soul and lift it to the skies.
Edmund Burke
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War is the matter which fills all history and consequently the only, or almost the only, view in which we can see the external of political society is in a hostile shape: and the only actions to which we have always seen, and still see, all of them intent, are such as tend to the destruction of one another.
Edmund Burke
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Nothing is so rash as fear and the counsels of pusillanimity very rarely put off, whilst they are always sure to aggravate, the evils from which they would fly.
Edmund Burke
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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
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Falsehood is a perennial spring.
Edmund Burke
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Men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told their duty.
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Tyrants seldom want pretexts.
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The poorest being that crawls on earth, contending to save itself from injustice and oppression, is an object respectable in the eyes of God and man.
Edmund Burke
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Neither the few nor the many have a right to act merely by their will, in any matter connected with duty, trust, engagement, or obligation.
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Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings.
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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.
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Nothing so effectually deadens the taste of the sublime as that which is light and radiant.
Edmund Burke
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Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.
Edmund Burke
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History is a pact between the dead, the living, and the yet unborn.
Edmund Burke
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He who calls in the aid of an equal understanding doubles his own and he who profits by a superior understanding raises his powers to a level with the height of the superior standing he unites with.
Edmund Burke