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A definition may be very exact, and yet go but a very little way towards informing us of the nature of the thing defined.

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
Way
Definitions
Defined
Towards
Nature
Littles
May
Informing
Little
Exact
Thing
Definition

More quotes by Edmund Burke

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Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.
Edmund Burke
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Politics ought to be adjusted not to human reasonings but to human nature, of which reason is but a part and by no means the greatest part.
Edmund Burke
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Men who undertake considerable things, even in a regular way, ought to give us ground to presume ability.
Edmund Burke
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This sort of people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man that they have totally forgotten his nature.
Edmund Burke
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Humanity cannot be degraded by humiliation.
Edmund Burke
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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.
Edmund Burke
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The very name of a politician, a statesman, is sure to cause terror and hatred it has always connected with it the ideas of treachery, cruelty, fraud, and tyranny.
Edmund Burke
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Good company, lively conversation, and the endearments of friendship fill the mind with great pleasure.
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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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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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.
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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I take toleration to be a part of religion. I do not know which I would sacrifice I would keep them both: it is not necessary that I should sacrifice either.
Edmund Burke
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Make the Revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions.
Edmund Burke
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But a good patriot, and a true politician, always considers how he shall make the most of the existing materials of his country. A disposition, to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman. Everything else is vulgar in the conception, perilous in the execution.
Edmund Burke
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The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.
Edmund Burke
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Nnothing tends more to the corruption of science than to suffer it to stagnate. These waters must be troubled, before they can exert their virtues.
Edmund Burke
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Fellowship in treason is a bad ground of confidence.
Edmund Burke
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In all forms of government the people is the true legislator.
Edmund Burke
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No man can mortgage his injustice as a pawn for his fidelity.
Edmund Burke