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To govern according to the sense and agreement of the interests of the people is a great and glorious object of governance. This object cannot be obtained but through the medium of popular election, and popular election is a mighty evil.

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
Sense
Interests
Govern
Cannot
Object
Mighty
Power
Election
Medium
Great
Objects
Mediums
People
Responsibility
Agreement
Politics
Glorious
Interest
Popular
Obtained
Evil
According
Governance

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What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!
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An entire life of solitude contradicts the purpose of our being, since death itself is scarcely an idea of more terror.
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I have been told by an eminent bookseller, that in no branch of his business , after tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as those on the law exported to the Plantations .
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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.
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All that needs to be done for evil to prevail is good men doing nothing.
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The moment that government appears at market, the principles of the market will be subverted.
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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.
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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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No man can mortgage his injustice as a pawn for his fidelity.
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True religion is the foundation of society. When that is once shaken by contempt, the whole fabric cannot be stable nor lasting.
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It looks to me to be narrow and pedantic to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal justice to this great public contest. I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people.
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Man is an animal that cooks his victuals.
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The moment you abate anything from the full rights of men to each govern himself, and suffer any artificial positive limitation upon those rights, from that moment the whole organization of government becomes a consideration of convenience.
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A nation is not conquered which is perpetually to be conquered.
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I am not one of those who think that the people are never in the wrong. They have been so, frequently and outrageously, both in other countries and in this. But I do say that in all disputes between them and their rulers, the presumption is at least upon a par in favour of the people.
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I despair of ever receiving the same degree of pleasure from the most exalted performances of genius which I felt in childhood from pieces which my present judgment regards as trifling and contemptible.
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They [Americans] augur misgovernment at a distance and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.
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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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Between craft and credulity, the voice of reason is stifled.
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It is an advantage to all narrow wisdom and narrow morals that their maxims have a plausible air and, on a cursory view, appear equal to first principles. They are light and portable. They are as current as copper coin and about as valuable.
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