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Edmund Burke Quotes

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Famous Edmund Burke Quotes

“Obstinacy, sir, is certainly a great vice; and in the changeful state of political affairs it is frequently the cause of great mischief. It happens, however, very unfortunately, that almost the whole line of the great and masculine virtues--constancy, gravity, magnanimity, fortitude, fidelity, and firmness--are closely allied to this disagreeable quality, of which you have so just an abhorrence; and in their excess all these virtues very easily fall into it.”

StatesWholeHappensPoliticalFallCausesLinesQualityVirtueAffairVicesExcessGravityMasculineFortitudeFidelityMischiefDisagreeableConstancyFirmnessObstinacyMagnanimityAbhorrence
Book:Celebrated Speeches of Chatham, Burke, and Erskine: To which is Added the Arguement of Mr. Mackintosh in the Case of Peltier
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“Instead of casting away all our old prejudices, we cherish them to a very considerable degree, and, to take more shame to ourselves, we cherish them because they are prejudices; and the longer they have lasted and the more generally they have prevailed, the more we cherish them. We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason; because we suspect that this stock in each man is small, and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages.”

MenReasonAgeIndividualNationsDegreesPrejudiceShameTradeSuspectsCherishCasting
Author:Edmund Burke
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“By the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young; but, in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied tenor of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression.”

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Book:The Portable Edmund Burke
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“Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be so as long as the world endures. Plain good intention, which is as easily discovered at the first view as fraud is surely detected at last, is of no mean force in the government of mankind.”

WorldFirstsMeanLongHas BeensGovernmentLastsForceParentViewsMankindPolicyIntentionEndureConfusionFraudGood IntentionsRefined
Book:The Speeches of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, with Memoir and Historical Introductions. By James Burke
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“I do not hesitate to say that the road to eminence and power, from an obscure condition, ought not to be made too easy, nor a thing too much of course. If rare merit be the rarest of all things, it ought to pass through some sort of probation. The temple of honor ought to be seated on an eminence. If it be open through virtue, let it be remembered, too, that virtue is never tried but by some difficulty and some struggle.”

IfsMadeCoursesEasyStruggleVirtueToo MuchConditionsGreatnessOughtHonorAll ThingsDifficultyRememberedMeritTemplesObscureEminenceProbation
Book:Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the proceedings in certain societies in London, relative to that event. In a letter intended to have been sent to a gentleman in Paris ... The seventh edition
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“It is very rare, indeed, for men to be wrong in their feelings concerning public misconduct; as rare to be right in their speculations upon the cause of it. I have constantly observed that the generality of people are fifty years, at least, behind in their politics.”

PeopleMenYearsFeelingsPoliticsCausesBehindsFiftySpeculationGeneralitiesMisconduct
Book:The Works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke ...: A vindication of natural society. An essay on the sublime and beautiful. Political miscellanies
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