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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.

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
Dependence
Must
Personal
Purposes
Real
Answers
Possess
Mean
Knowing
Obligation
Men
Purpose
Election
Upon
Means
Seek
Retain
Firsts
Answer
Fitness
First
Hold

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The more accurately we search into the human mind, the stronger traces we everywhere find of his wisdom who made it.
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Humanity cannot be degraded by humiliation.
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There ought to be system of manners in every nation which a well-formed mind would be disposed to relish. To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.
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The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.
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Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times, and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations - wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.
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It has all the contortions of the sibyl without the inspiration.
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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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The great Error of our Nature is, not to know where to stop, not to be satisfied with any reasonable Acquirement not to compound with our Condition but to lose all we have gained by an insatiable Pursuit after more.
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To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.
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By this unprincipled facility of changing the state as often, and as much, and in as many ways as there are floating fancies or fashions, the whole chain and continuity of the commonwealth would be broken. No one generation could link with the other. Men would become little better than the flies of a summer.
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Wars are just to those to whom they are necessary.
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An extreme rigor is sure to arm everything against it.
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Tyrants seldom want pretexts.
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Contempt is not a thing to be despised.
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Ambition can creep as well as soar.
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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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But whoever is a genuine follower of Truth, keeps his eye steady upon his guide, indifferent whither he is led, provided that she is the leader.
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Circumspection and caution are part of wisdom.
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Thank God, men that art greatly guilty are never wise.
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Law and arbitrary power are at eternal enmity.
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