Where two motives, neither of them perfectly justifiable, may be assigned, the worst has the chance of being preferred. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
Obstinacy, sir, is certainly a great vice; and in the changeful state of political affairs it is frequently the cause of great… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
“Thus these politicians proceed, whilst little notice is taken of their doctrines; but when they come to be examined upon the plain… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
It is by bribing, not so often by being bribed, that wicked politicians bring ruin on mankind. Avarice is a rival to… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
I have in general no very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper government. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
But a good patriot, and a true politician, always considers how he shall make the most of the existing materials of his… — 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
“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
Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate,… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
“. . . they who plead an absolute right cannot be satisfied with anything short of personal representation, because all natural rights… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
The Fate of good men who refuse to become involved in politics is to be ruled by evil men. — 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
There is a sort of enthusiasm in all projectors, absolutely necessary for their affairs, which makes them proof against the most fatiguing… — 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 moment that government appears at market, the principles of the market will be subverted. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
“. . . a nation is not an idea only of local extent, and individual momentary aggregation; but it is an idea… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
“It is undoubtedly true, though it may seem paradoxical; but in general, those who are habitually employed in finding and displaying faults,… — 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
The public interest requires doing today those things that men of intelligence and good will would wish, five or ten years hence,… — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
Government is the exercise of all the great qualities of the human mind. — 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
It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere. — Edmund Burke Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
