Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke

46 quotes

Edmund Burke, an Anglo-Irish politician, writer and philosopher, is widely remembered for insights that continue to resonate with readers everywhere. Whether reflecting on Men or Great, Edmund Burke brought uncommon clarity to every subject. We feature 60 quotes from Edmund Burke spanning Men, Great, Good, Society, and Religion, making them one of the most prolific voices in our archive. A favorite of many readers: "Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom and a great empire and little minds go ill together."

“All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory they have no power over the substance of original justice.”

— Edmund Burke

Power

All Quotes by Edmund Burke

“Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.”

— Edmund Burke

Religion

“All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.”

— Edmund Burke

Government

“But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.”

— Edmund Burke

Wisdom

“When bad men combine, the good must associate else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”

— Edmund Burke

Good

“Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.”

— Edmund Burke

Food

“Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.”

— Edmund Burke

Great

“The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.”

— Edmund Burke

Power

“Beauty is the promise of happiness.”

— Edmund Burke

Beauty

“There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity - the law of nature and of nations.”

— Edmund Burke

Nature

“Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.”

— Edmund Burke

Art

“It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.”

— Edmund Burke

Nature

“The person who grieves suffers his passion to grow upon him he indulges it, he loves it but this never happens in the case of actual pain, which no man ever willingly endured for any considerable time.”

— Edmund Burke

Time

“Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times, and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations - wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.”

— Edmund Burke

Men

“Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society.”

— Edmund Burke

Society

“Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.”

— Edmund Burke

Great

“To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.”

— Edmund Burke

Men

“I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.”

— Edmund Burke

War

“Our patience will achieve more than our force.”

— Edmund Burke

Patience

“Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.”

— Edmund Burke

Work

“You can never plan the future by the past.”

— Edmund Burke

Future