Quote

Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be so as long as the world endures. Plain good intention, which is as easily discovered at the first view as fraud is surely detected at last, is of no mean force in the government of mankind.

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
World
Force
Easily
Refined
Government
View
Fraud
Ever
Mankind
Plain
Firsts
Policy
Surely
First
Views
Confusion
Mean
Parent
Discovered
Long
Lasts
Intention
Detected
Good
Last
Endure
Endures

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A very great part of the mischiefs that vex the world arises from words.
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The wisdom of our ancestors.
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Good company, lively conversation, and the endearments of friendship fill the mind with great pleasure.
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To speak of atrocious crime in mild language is treason to virtue.
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The science of constructing a commonwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it, is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught a priori. Nor is it a short experience that can instruct us in that practical science, because the real effects of moral causes are not always immediate.
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For as wealth is power, so all power will infallibly draw wealth to itself by some means or other and when men are left no way of ascertaining their profits but by their means of obtaining them, those means will be increased to infinity.
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Circumspection and caution are part of wisdom.
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It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.
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It has all the contortions of the sibyl without the inspiration.
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Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.
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The worthy gentleman who has been snatched from us at the moment of the election, and in the middle of the contest, whilst his desires were as warm and his hopes as eager as ours, has feelingly told us what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue.
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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.
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Men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told their duty.
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Public calamity is a mighty leveller.
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In all forms of government the people is the true legislator.
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When slavery is established in any part of the world, those who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom.
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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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To execute laws is a royal office to execute orders is not to be a king. However, a political executive magistracy, though merely such, is a great trust.
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One source of the sublime is infinity.
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Men have no right to put the well-being of the present generation wholly out of the question. Perhaps the only moral trust with any certainty in our hands is the care of our own time.
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