Quote

A man is allowed sufficient freedom of thought, provided he knows how to choose his subject properly.... But the scene is changed as you come homeward, and atheism or treason may be the names given in Britain to what would be reason and truth if asserted in China.

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
Truth
Subjects
Provided
May
Scene
Properly
Reason
Choose
Britain
Come
Changed
Sufficient
Would
Names
Allowed
Men
Freedom
China
Homeward
Given
Subject
Asserted
Thought
Atheism
Treason

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The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.
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A people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood.
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Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.
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Whenever government abandons law, it proclaims anarchy.
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That cardinal virtue, temperance.
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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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Between craft and credulity, the voice of reason is stifled.
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Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.
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But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.
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In a free country every man thinks he has a concern in all public matters,--that he has a right to form and a right to deliver an opinion on them. This it is that fills countries with men of ability in all stations.
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There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity - the law of nature and of nations.
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Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times, and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations - wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.
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The moment you abate anything from the full rights of men to each govern himself, and suffer any artificial positive limitation upon those rights, from that moment the whole organization of government becomes a consideration of convenience.
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It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.
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I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.
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Art is a partnership not only between those who are living but between those who are dead and those who are yet to be born.
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Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power but they will never look to anything but power for their relief.
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Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy. If parsimony were to be considered as one of the kinds of that virtue, there is, however, another and a higher economy. Economy is a distinctive virtue, and consists not in saving, but in selection.
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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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Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.
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