" And so begins [with Edmund Burke's apocalyptic rhetorical tendencies] that strange note, found to this day in American conservative magazines, whereby the most privileged caste in the most powerful country in the most prosperous epoch in the whole history of human-kind is always sure that everything is going straight to hell and has mostly already got there." (p. 72)
Adam Gopnik
"The Right Man:
Who Owns Edmund Burke?"
Who Owns Edmund Burke?"
The New Yorker
July 29, 2013
 |
Nobody made a greater mistake than he
who did nothing because
Ambition can creep as well as soar.
Edmund Burke (Letters on a Regicide Peace, 1796)
It is not what a lawyer tells me I may
do; but what humanity, reason,
and justice tell me I ought to do.
Edmund Burke (Speech on Concillation with the American Colonies,
1775)
We must all obey the great law of
change. It is the most
powerful law of nature.
Edmund Burke (Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, 1792)
If we command our wealth, we shall be
rich and free;
if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.
Edmund Burke (Letters on a Regicide Peace, 1796)
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
Edmund Burke (Speech to the Electors of Bristol
People will not look forward to
posterity, who never
look backward to their ancestors.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
To make us love our country, our country
ought to be lovely.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
Toleration is good for all, or it is
good for none.
Edmund Burke (Speech on the Bill for the Relief of
Protestant Dissenters, 1773)
In a democracy, the majority of the
citizens is capable of
exercising the most cruel oppressions
upon the minority.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
When any work seems to have required
immense force
and labor to effect it, the idea is
grand.
Edmund Burke
(A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the
Sublime and Beautiful, 1757)
To drive men from independence to live
on alms, is itself great cruelty.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
Superstition is the religion of feeble
minds.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
The greater the power, the more
dangerous the abuse.
Edmund Burke (Speech on the Middlesex Elections, 1771)
Make the Revolution a parent
of settlement, and not a
nursery of future revolutions.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
One that confounds good and evil is an
enemy to good.
Edmund Burke (Speech on the Impeachment of Warren
Hastings, 1788)
It is the nature of all greatness not to
be exact.
Edmund Burke (First Speech on Conciliation with America
Gentlemen, the melancholy event of
yesterday reads to us an awful
lesson against being too much troubled
about any of the objects of
ordinary ambition. The worthy gentleman,
who has been snatched
from us at the moment of the election, and in
the middle of contest,
whilst his desires were as warm, and his
hopes as eager as ours,
has feelingly told us, what shadows we are,
and what shadows we pursue.
Edmund Burke (Speech at Bristol
I venture to say no war can be long
carried on against the will of the people.
Edmund Burke (Letters on a Regicide Peace, 1796)
Example is the school of mankind, and
they will learn at no other.
Edmund Burke (Letters on a Regicide Peace, 1796)
Whenever a separation is made between
liberty and justice, neither,
in my opinion, is safe.
Edmund Burke (Letter to Monsieur Dupont, 1789)
By hating vices too much, they come to
love men too little.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
There is a boundary to men's passions
when they act from feelings;
but none when they are under the
influence of imagination.
Edmund Burke (Appeal From the New to the Old Whigs,
1791)
Poetry is the art of substantiating
shadows, and of lending
existence to nothing.
Edmund Burke (Quoted in Correspondence of the Right
Honourable Edmund Burke, 1826)
Depend upon it, that the lovers of
freedom will be free.
Edmund Burke (Speech at Bristol
The most important of all revolutions, a
revolution
in sentiments, manners and moral opinions.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
People crushed by laws, have no hope but
to evade power. If the laws
are their enemies, they will be enemies to the
law; and those
who have most to hope and nothing to
lose will always be dangerous.
Edmund Burke (Letter to Charles James Fox, 1777)
Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of
strength.
Edmund Burke
Custom reconciles us to everything.
Edmund Burke (A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin
of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1757)
Men are qualified for civil liberty in
exact proportion to their
disposition to put moral chains on their
own appetites. Society
cannot exist unless a controlling power
upon will and appetite be
placed somewhere, and the less of it there is
within, the more
there is without. It is ordained in the
eternal constitution of
things that men of intemperate minds
cannot be free. Their passions
forge their fetters.
Edmund Burke (Letter to a Member of the National
Assembly, 1791)
It is, generally, in the season of
prosperity that men discover their real
temper, principles, and designs.
Edmund Burke (Letters on a Regicide Peace, 1796)
There is, however, a limit at which
forbearance ceases
to be a virtue.
Edmund Burke (Observations on a Late Publication on
the Present State
He that struggles with us strengthens
our nerves, and sharpens
our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
A great profusion of things, which are
splendid or valuable in
themselves, is magnificent. The
starry heaven, though it occurs
so very frequently to our view, never fails to
excite an idea of
grandeur. This cannot be owing to the
stars themselves,
separately considered. The number is
certainly the cause.
Edmund Burke (A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin
of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1757)
Never despair, but if you do, work on in
despair.
Edmund Burke (Quoted Correspondence of Edmund Burke and
William Windham, 1910)
Falsehood is a perennial spring.
Edmund Burke (Speech on American Taxation, 1774)
There is no safety for honest men but by
believing all possible
evil of evil men.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
Nothing turns out to be so oppressive
and unjust as a feeble government.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
Beauty in distress is much the most
affecting beauty.
Edmund Burke (A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin
of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1757)
A disposition to preserve, and an
ability to improve, taken together,
would be my standard of a statesman.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
People never give up their liberties but
under some delusion.
Edmund Burke (Speech at County Meeting
The use of force alone is but temporary.
It may subdue for the moment;
but it does not remove the necessity of
subduing again: and a nation
is not governed, which is perpetually to
be conquered.
Edmund Burke (Second Speech on Concillation with America
And having looked to Government for
bread, on the very first
scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that
fed them.
Edmund Burke (Thoughts and Details on Scarcity, 1795)
The true danger is when liberty is
nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.
Edmund Burke (Letters to the Sherrifs of Bristol
Laws, like houses, lean on one another.
Edmund Burke (Tracts Relative to the Laws Against Popery in Ireland
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 (Reflections on the Revolution in France
The first and simplest emotion which we
discover in the human
mind, is curiosity.
Edmund Burke (A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin
of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1757)
Woman is not made to be the admiration
of all, but the happiness of one.
Edmund Burke
If the people are happy, united,
wealthy, and powerful, we presume
the rest. We conclude that to be good
from whence good is derived.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
By gnawing through a dike, even a rat
may drown a nation.
Edmund Burke
If you can be well without health, you
may be happy without virtue.
Edmund Burke
There is a boundary to men's passions
when they act from feelings;
but none when they are under the
influence of imagination.
Edmund Burke (Appeal From the New to the Old Whigs,
1791)
You can never plan the future by the
past.
Edmund Burke (Letter to a Member of the National
Assembly, 1791)
All that is necessary for the triumph of
evil is that good
men do nothing.
Variant: All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world
Variant: All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world
is for enough good men to do nothing.
Edmund Burke
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and
the giver.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
Good order is the foundation of all
things.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
The march of the human mind is slow.
Edmund Burke (Second Speech on Concillation with America
It is ordained in the eternal
constitution of things, that men of intemperate
minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their
fetters.
Edmund Burke (Letter to a Member of the National
Assembly, 1791)
Facts are to the mind what food is to
the body.
Edmund Burke
Tyrants seldom want pretexts.
Edmund Burke (Letter to a Member of the National
Assembly, 1791)
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 (Thoughts and Details on Scarcity, 1795)
No passion so effectually robs the mind
of all its powers of acting
and reasoning as fear.
Edmund Burke (A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin
of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1757)
To read without reflecting is like
eating without digesting.
Edmund Burke
Never, no, never
did Nature say one thing and Wisdom say another.
Edmund Burke (Letters on a Regicide Peace, 1796)
Our patience will achieve more than our
force.
Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France
No comments:
Post a Comment