Government is the exercise of all the great qualities of the human mind. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
The moment that government appears at market, the principles of the market will be subverted. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
I have in general no very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper government. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
I cannot help concurring with the opinion that an absolute democracy, no more than absolute monarchy, is to be reckoned among the… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that for any practical purpose, it is what the people think… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
People crushed by law, have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws; and… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the people think… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
The parties are the gamesters; but government keeps the table, and is sure to be the winner in the end. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
It is the love of the people; it is their attachment to their government, from the sense of the deep stake they… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be so as long as the world endures. Plain good… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
The only liberty that is valuable is a liberty connected with order; that not only exists along with order and virtue, but… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
To give freedom is still more easy. It is not necessary to guide; it only requires to let go the rein. But… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
All writers on the science of policy are agreed, and they agree with experience, that all governments must frequently infringe the rules… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
The moment you abate anything from the full rights of men to each govern himself, and suffer any artificial positive limitation upon… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
“All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. We balance… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
“The foundation of government is . . . laid, not in imaginary rights of men, (which at best is a confusion of… — Edmund Burke Copy Share 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… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
The distinguishing part of our constitution is its liberty. To preserve that liberty inviolate, is the peculiar duty and proper trust of… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
We are in a war of a peculiar nature. It is not with an ordinary community, which is hostile or friendly as… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement. No sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
No government ought to exist for the purpose of checking the prosperity of its people or to allow such a principle in… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere. — Edmund Burke Copy Share
“Many of the greatest tyrants on the records of history have begun their reigns in the fairest manner. But the truth is, this unnatural… — Edmund Burke Copy Share
In this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of polity the image of a relation in blood; binding up the constitution… — Edmund Burke Copy Share
“Wise men will apply their remedies to vices, not to names; to the causes of evil which are permanent, not to the occasional organs… — Edmund Burke Copy Share
“A man full of warm, speculative benevolence may wish his society otherwise constituted than he finds it; but a good patriot, and a true… — Edmund Burke Copy Share
The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of thegreat. — Edmund Burke Copy Share
Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never… — Edmund Burke Copy Share
What is it we all seek for in an election? To answer its real purposes, you must first possess the means of knowing the… — Edmund Burke Copy Share
Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in… — Edmund Burke Copy Share
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… — Edmund Burke Copy Share
By the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never… — Edmund Burke Copy Share
Religion, to have any force upon men's understandings,--indeed, to exist at all,--must be supposed paramount to law, and independent for its substance upon any… — Edmund Burke Copy Share
