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Men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told their duty.

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
Duty
Told
Hear
Power
Men
Love
Extreme
Extremes

More quotes by Edmund Burke

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The superfluities of a rich nation furnish a better object of trade than the necessities of a poor one. It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.
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War is the matter which fills all history and consequently the only, or almost the only, view in which we can see the external of political society is in a hostile shape: and the only actions to which we have always seen, and still see, all of them intent, are such as tend to the destruction of one another.
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It has all the contortions of the sibyl without the inspiration.
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The true way to mourn the dead is to take care of the living who belong to them.
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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.
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Those who quit their proper character to assume what does not belong to them are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave and of the character they assume.
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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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Religion is among the most powerful causes of enthusiasm.
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It may be observed, that very polished languages, and such as are praised for their superior clearness and perspicuity, are generally deficient in strength.
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The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up any of their own.
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A nation is not conquered which is perpetually to be conquered.
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Not men but measures a sort of charm by which many people get loose from every honorable engagement.
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Public calamity is a mighty leveller.
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I cannot conceive how any man can have brought himself to that pitch of presumption, to consider his country as nothing but carte blanche, upon which he may scribble whatever he pleases.
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All virtue which is impracticable is spurious.
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Free trade is not based on utility but on justice.
Edmund Burke
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The power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of the most valuable and interesting circumstances belonging to it, and that which tends the most to the perpetuation of society itself.
Edmund Burke
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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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It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.
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I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country churchyard than in the tomb of the Capulets.
Edmund Burke