Political Quotes by Edmund Burke

By hating vices too much, they come to love men too little.

— Edmund Burke

Those who have been intoxicated with power... can never willingly abandon it.

— Edmund Burke

You had that action and counteraction which, in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers…

— Edmund Burke

Many of the greatest tyrants on the records of history have begun their reigns in the fairest manner. But the truth is,…

— Edmund Burke

This sort of people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man that they have totally forgotten his…

— Edmund Burke

Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and…

— Edmund Burke

Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director and regulator, the…

— Edmund Burke

To execute laws is a royal office; to execute orders is not to be a king. However, a political executive magistracy, though…

— Edmund Burke

Where two motives, neither of them perfectly justifiable, may be assigned, the worst has the chance of being preferred.

— Edmund Burke

Obstinacy, sir, is certainly a great vice; and in the changeful state of political affairs it is frequently the cause of great…

— Edmund Burke

"War," says Machiavelli, "ought to be the only study of a prince;" and by a prince he means every sort of state,…

— Edmund Burke

I am not one of those who think that the people are never in the wrong. They have been so, frequently and…

— Edmund Burke

The liberty I mean is social freedom. It is that state of things in which liberty is secured by the equality of…

— Edmund Burke

It is better to cherish virtue and humanity, by leaving much to free will, even with some loss of the object ,…

— Edmund Burke

War is the matter which fills all history; and consequently the only, or almost the only, view in which we can see…

— Edmund Burke

The science of constructing a commonwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it, is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught…

— Edmund Burke

In on summer they have done their business... they have completely pulled down to the ground their monarchy, their church, their nobility,…

— Edmund Burke

I cannot stand forward, and give praise or blame to any thing which relates to human actions, and human concerns, on a…

— Edmund Burke