Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797)
Irish political philosopher, Whig politician and statesman who is often regarded as the father of modern conservatism.
We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature, and the means perhaps of its conservation.
I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observation of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.
The first and the simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind is Curiosity.
Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.
Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found.
The march of the human mind is slow.
Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to any thing but power for their relief.
I cannot conceive how any man can have brought himself to that pitch of presumption, to consider his country as nothing but carte blanche, upon which he may scribble whatever he pleases.
The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.
People crushed by law, have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws; and those who have much to hope and nothing to lose, will always be dangerous.
The wisdom of our ancestors.
Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.
Corrupt influence, which is itself the perennial spring of all prodigality, and of all disorder; which loads us, more than millions of debt; which takes away vigor from our arms, wisdom from our councils, and every shadow of authority and credit from the most venerable parts of our constitution.
No sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing voice of Christian charity.
Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists not in saving but selection. Parsimony requires no providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no comparison, no judgment.
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
Manners are of more importance than laws. The law can touch us here and there, now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation like that of the air we breathe in.
The cold neutrality of an impartial judge.
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.
Free trade is not based on utility but on justice.