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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.

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
Government
Practical
Matter
Judging
Think
Answer
Thinking
Answers
People
Asks
Lawful
Purpose
Competent
Free
Judges
Natural
Practicals

More quotes by Edmund Burke

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Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.
Edmund Burke
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A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.
Edmund Burke
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Man is an animal that cooks his victuals.
Edmund Burke
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Fellowship in treason is a bad ground of confidence.
Edmund Burke
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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
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A good parson once said that where mystery begins religion ends. Cannot I say, as truly at least, of human laws, that where mystery begins justice ends?
Edmund Burke
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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
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There is a wide difference between admiration and love. The sublime, which is the cause of the former, always dwells on great objects and terrible the latter on small ones and pleasing we submit to what we admire, but we love what submits to us: in one case we are forced, in the other, we are flattered, into compliance.
Edmund Burke
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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
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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
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Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
Edmund Burke
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Restraint and discipline and examples of virtue and justice. These are the things that form the education of the world.
Edmund Burke
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Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.
Edmund Burke
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If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.
Edmund Burke
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Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.
Edmund Burke
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To be struck with His power, it is only necessary to open our eyes.
Edmund Burke
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Good order is the foundation of all things.
Edmund Burke
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People crushed by law, have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws and those who have much hope and nothing to lose, will always be dangerous.
Edmund Burke
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Pleasure of every kind quickly satisfies.
Edmund Burke
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I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country churchyard than in the tomb of the Capulets.
Edmund Burke