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

More quotes by Edmund Burke

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Freedom without virtue is not freedom but license to pursue whatever passions prevail in the intemperate mind man's right to freedom being in exact proportion to his willingness to put chains upon his own appetites the less restraint from within, the more must be imposed from without.
Edmund Burke
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It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.
Edmund Burke
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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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As mankind becomes more enlightened to know their real interests, they will esteem the value of agriculture they will find it in their natural--their destined occupation.
Edmund Burke
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Next to love, Sympathy is the divinest passion of the human heart.
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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Spain: A whale stranded upon the coast of Europe.
Edmund Burke
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Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society.
Edmund Burke
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All virtue which is impracticable is spurious.
Edmund Burke
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Applaud us when we run, Console us when we fall, Cheer us when we recover.
Edmund Burke
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Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.
Edmund Burke
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It has all the contortions of the sibyl without the inspiration.
Edmund Burke
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Vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.
Edmund Burke
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They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate.
Edmund Burke
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But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
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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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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Tyrants seldom want pretexts.
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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Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.
Edmund Burke