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

More quotes by Edmund Burke

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To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.
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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Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.
Edmund Burke
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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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Men have no right to what is not reasonable, and to what is not for their benefit.
Edmund Burke
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The person who grieves suffers his passion to grow upon him he indulges it, he loves it but this never happens in the case of actual pain, which no man ever willingly endured for any considerable time.
Edmund Burke
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In history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of mankind.
Edmund Burke
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Hypocrisy is no cheap vice nor can our natural temper be masked for many years together.
Edmund Burke
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Power, in whatever hands, is rarely guilty of too strict limitations on itself.
Edmund Burke
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There are three estates in Parliament but in the Reporters' Gallery yonder there sits a Fourth Estate more important far than they all. It is not a figure of speech or witty saying, it is a literal fact, very momentous to us in these times.
Edmund Burke
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Evil prevails when good men fail to act.
Edmund Burke
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Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.
Edmund Burke
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Society is indeed a contract. ... It is a partnership in all science a partnership in all art a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection.
Edmund Burke
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Freedom and not servitude is the cure of anarchy as religion, and not atheism, is the true remedy of superstition.
Edmund Burke
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Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe.
Edmund Burke
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Where two motives, neither of them perfectly justifiable, may be assigned, the worst has the chance of being preferred.
Edmund Burke
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It is known that the taste--whatever it is--is improved exactly as we improve our judgment, by extending our knowledge, by a steady attention to our object, and by frequent exercise.
Edmund Burke
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One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.
Edmund Burke
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Nothing less will content me, than wholeAmerica.
Edmund Burke
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Of this stamp is the cant of, Not men, but measures.
Edmund Burke