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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

Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.
EDMUND BURKE

Greatness Justice Policy
All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.
EDMUND BURKE

Barter Found Government Human Virtue
Men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told their duty.
EDMUND BURKE

Love Man Power
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
EDMUND BURKE

Flatter Generosity Receive
A coward’s courage is in his tongue.
EDMUND BURKE

Courage Coward Tongue
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.
EDMUND BURKE

Assumption Country Himself Man
A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
EDMUND BURKE

Change Conservation Conversation State
Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant.
EDMUND BURKE

Infant Original Planning Thinking
Circumspection and caution are part of wisdom.
EDMUND BURKE

Caution Wisdom
History consists, for the greater part, of the miseries brought upon the world by pride, ambition, avarice, revenge, lust, sedition, hypocrisy, ungoverned zeal, and all the train of disorderly appetite.
EDMUND BURKE

Appetite Greatness History Misery Pride Training World
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.
EDMUND BURKE

Dangerous Liberty True
They defend their errors as if they were defending their inheritance.
EDMUND BURKE

Defend Errors Inheritance
Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality.
EDMUND BURKE

Absence Existence Liberty Moral
The greatest sin is to do nothing because you can only do a little.
EDMUND BURKE

Greatness Sin Yourself
People crushed by law, have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws; and those who have much hope and nothing to lose, will always be dangerous.
EDMUND BURKE

Dangerous Enemy Hope Law People Power Willing
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
EDMUND BURKE

Bad Law Worst
Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director and regulator, the standard of them all.
EDMUND BURKE

Director Politics Prudent Standard Virtue
A great empire and little minds go ill together.
EDMUND BURKE

Empire Greatness Mindset Togetherness
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
EDMUND BURKE

Act Fear Mindset Passion Power Reason
We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.
EDMUND BURKE

Greatness Law Nature Obedience Powerful
Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.
EDMUND BURKE

Afford Beyond Cost Hypocrisy Promise
The grave is a common treasury, to which we must all be taken.
EDMUND BURKE

Grave Ourselves Treasure
Men who undertake considerable things, even in a regular way, ought to give us ground to presume ability.
EDMUND BURKE

Ability Man Ourselves Regular
Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.
EDMUND BURKE

End Goal Mindset Noble Oneself Weakness
Turn over a new leaf.
EDMUND BURKE

Let Go One Liner Start
The blood of man should never be shed but to redeem the blood of man. It is well shed for our family, for our friends, for our God, for our country, for our kind. The rest is vanity; the rest is crime.
EDMUND BURKE

Blood Country Crime Family Friendship Kind Man Rest
Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.
EDMUND BURKE

Corruption Existence Liberty People

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.

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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.

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Popular Authors

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