Quotessence
Home / Authors / Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke Quotes

Statesman

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenMindVirtueMayPeopleLibertyPoliticsGovernmentOughtPoliticalLawEvilWorldPrinciplesWholeHumansLittlesStatesInterestNations

Famous Edmund Burke Quotes

“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
Create image

“All writers on the science of policy are agreed, and they agree with experience, that all governments must frequently infringe the rules of justice to support themselves; that truth must give way to dissimulation, honesty to convenience, and humanity itself to the reigning of interest. The whole of this mystery of iniquity is called the reason of state.”

WayGivingStatesReasonWholeGovernmentHumanityInterestJusticeSupportMysteryHonestyPolicyAgreeConvenienceIniquity
Book:The Inherent Evils of All State Governments Demonstrated; Being a Reprint of ...
Create image

“To give freedom is still more easy. It is not necessary to guide; it only requires to let go the rein. But to form a free government; that is, to temper together these opposite elements of liberty and restraint in one work, requires much thought, deep reflection, a sagacious, powerful, and combining mind.”

GivingMindStillsGovernmentTogetherFormEasyPowerfulLibertyLetting GoElementsReflectionOppositesGuidesTemperRestraintReinsCombiningFree Government
Book:Reflections on the French Revolution
Create image

“The distinguishing part of our constitution is its liberty. To preserve that liberty inviolate, is the peculiar duty and proper trust of a member of the house of commons. But the liberty, the only liberty I mean, is a liberty connected with order, and that not only exists with order and virtue, but cannot exist at all without them. It inheres in good and steady government, as in its substance and vital principle.”

GovernmentOrderLibertyPrinciplesVirtueValuableConnectedSubstanceSteady
Author:Edmund Burke
Create image

“The science of constructing a commonwealth or renovating it, or reforming it, is...not to be taught a priori...That which in the first instance is prejudicial may be excellent in its remoter operation, and its excellence may rise even from the ill effects it produces in the beginning. The reverse also happens; and very plausible schemes, with very pleasing commencements, have often shameful and lamentable conclusions.”

FirstsMayGovernmentHappensEffectsProduceTaughtExcellenceIllConclusionInstanceExcellentOperationsSchemesReverseShamefulCommonwealthPlausibleCommencement
Author:Edmund Burke
Create image

“We are in a war of a peculiar nature. It is not with an ordinary community, which is hostile or friendly as passion or as interest may veer about: not with a state which makes war through wantonness, and abandons it through lassitude. We are at war with a system, which by its essence, is inimical to all other governments, and which makes peace or war, as peace and war may best contribute to their subversion. It is with an armed doctrine that we are at war. It has, by its essence, a faction of opinion, and of interest, and of enthusiasm, in every country.”

MayWarCountryStatesGovernmentPassionInterestCommunityOpinionHistoryOrdinaryEssenceDoctrineEnthusiasmFriendlyAbandonPeculiarHostileMaking PeaceFactionsSubversion
Author:Edmund Burke
Create image

“If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the people think so,and that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of this matter.”

PeopleIfsThinkingMatterGovernmentPurposeAsksNaturalAnswersJudgingPracticalsAsk MeCompetentNatural LawFree Government
Book:The Works and Correspondence of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke
Create image

“Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement. No sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing voice of Christian charity. The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of duties. Those who quit their proper character to assume what does not belong to them are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave and of the character they assume.”

LittlesDoeCharacterGovernmentChristianCausesSoundVoiceTermChurchHealingLibertyGreaterHeardDutyOughtGainsAssumingCharityQuittingIgnorantConfusionAgreementCivil LibertiesPulpit
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Edmund Burke (Illustrated)
Create image