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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

The great inlet by which a colour for oppression has entered into the world is by one man’s pretending to determine concerning the happiness of another.
EDMUND BURKE

Color Determination Greatness Happiness Oppression Pretend
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
EDMUND BURKE

Ancestor Past People
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
EDMUND BURKE

Bad Law Worst
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
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
EDMUND BURKE

Evil Goodness Man Necessary
When you fear something, learn as much about it as you can. Knowledge conquers fear.
EDMUND BURKE

Fear Knowledge Learning Yourself
In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.
EDMUND BURKE

Citizenship Democracy Exercise Majority Minority Oppression
By hating vices too much, they come to love men too little.
EDMUND BURKE

Hate Love Vice
Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
EDMUND BURKE

Greatness Himself Mistake
Those who have been intoxicated with power… can never willingly abandon it.
EDMUND BURKE

Abandonment Power Willing
The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.
EDMUND BURKE

Multitude Tyranny
All men have equal rights, but not to equal things.
EDMUND BURKE

Equality Man Right
A populace never rebels from passion for attack, but from impatience of suffering.
EDMUND BURKE

Attack Impatience Passion Popular Rebel Suffering
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
Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.
EDMUND BURKE

Justice Liberty Opinion Safety Separate
Men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told their duty.
EDMUND BURKE

Love Man Power
The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of the great.
EDMUND BURKE

Domination Greatness
The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.
EDMUND BURKE

Curiosity Discover Human Kind Simplicity
To speak of atrocious crime in mild language is treason to virtue.
EDMUND BURKE

Crime Death Language Talk Treason Value
To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
EDMUND BURKE

Digest Eat Reading Reflection
If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.
EDMUND BURKE

Command Freedom Poor Rich Wealth
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

Greatness Liberty Madness Possible Restraint Virtue Wisdom
Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years.
EDMUND BURKE

Build Prudence Rage Time
All the forces of darkness need to succeed … is for the people to do nothing.
EDMUND BURKE

Darkness Force Need People Success
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
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
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
EDMUND BURKE

Flatter Generosity Receive

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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