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Nothing, indeed, but the possession of some power can with any certainty discover what at the bottom is the true character of any man.

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
Discover
Indeed
Bottom
True
Power
Character
Nothing
Certainty
Men
Possession

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Religion is among the most powerful causes of enthusiasm.
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Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
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The traveller has reached the end of the journey!
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The love of lucre, though sometimes carried to a ridiculous excess, a vicious excess, is the grand cause of prosperity to all States.
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True humility-the basis of the Christian system-is the low but deep and firm foundation of all virtues.
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What is it we all seek for in an election? To answer its real purposes, you must first possess the means of knowing the fitness of your man and then you must retain some hold upon him by personal obligation or dependence.
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It is an advantage to all narrow wisdom and narrow morals that their maxims have a plausible air and, on a cursory view, appear equal to first principles. They are light and portable. They are as current as copper coin and about as valuable.
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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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Those who attempt to level never equalize
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Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society.
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The more accurately we search into the human mind, the stronger traces we everywhere find of his wisdom who made it.
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To give freedom is still more easy. It is not necessary to guide it only requires to let go the rein. But to form a free government that is, to temper together these opposite elements of liberty and restraint in one work, requires much thought, deep reflection, a sagacious, powerful, and combining mind.
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Good company, lively conversation, and the endearments of friendship fill the mind with great pleasure.
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Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.
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Vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.
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It looks to me to be narrow and pedantic to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal justice to this great public contest. I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people.
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Men who undertake considerable things, even in a regular way, ought to give us ground to presume ability.
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Frugality is founded on the principal that all riches have limits.
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Education is the cheap defense of nations.
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Hypocrisy is no cheap vice nor can our natural temper be masked for many years together.
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