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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.

Edmund Burke

Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.
EDMUND BURKE

Destiny History Repeat
Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality.
EDMUND BURKE

Absence Existence Liberty Moral
Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.
EDMUND BURKE

Deep Goodness Tolerance
True religion is the foundation of society. When that is once shaken by contempt, the whole fabric cannot be stable nor lasting.
EDMUND BURKE

Foundation Religion Society Stability True
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
Men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told their duty.
EDMUND BURKE

Love Man Power
There is a boundary to men’s passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination.
EDMUND BURKE

Act Boundary Feeling Imagination Influence Man Passion
Men who undertake considerable things, even in a regular way, ought to give us ground to presume ability.
EDMUND BURKE

Ability Man Ourselves Regular
Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
EDMUND BURKE

Greatness Himself Mistake
One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.
EDMUND BURKE

Enemy Evil Goodness Oneself
Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.
EDMUND BURKE

Justice Liberty Opinion Safety Separate
The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.
EDMUND BURKE

Crisis Fire Hot Moral Reserve Time
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
Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.
EDMUND BURKE

King Principle Rebel Subject Tyranny
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
EDMUND BURKE

Delusion Give Up Liberty People
All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing as they must if they believe they can do nothing. There is nothing worse because the council of despair is declaration of irresponsibility; it is Pilate washing his hands.
EDMUND BURKE

Council Evil Hands Irresponsibility Necessary Success Wash
The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.
EDMUND BURKE

Multitude Tyranny
A great empire and little minds go ill together.
EDMUND BURKE

Empire Greatness Mindset Togetherness
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
To speak of atrocious crime in mild language is treason to virtue.
EDMUND BURKE

Crime Death Language Talk Treason Value
General rebellions and revolts of a whole people never were encouraged now or at any time. They are always provoked.
EDMUND BURKE

Encouragement People Provoke Rebel Revolution Time
There is nothing that God has judged good for us that He has not given us the means to accomplish, both in the natural and the moral world.
EDMUND BURKE

Accomplishment God Judgement Moral World
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.
EDMUND BURKE

Dangerous Liberty True
There is no safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men, and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.
EDMUND BURKE

Act Attitude Belief Believe Decision Honesty Man Possible Safety
By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.
EDMUND BURKE

Mistake Nation Power Small
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
The essence of tyranny is the enforcement of stupid laws.
EDMUND BURKE

Essence Force Law Stupidity

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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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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