Edmund Burke was an Anglo-Irish statesman and philosopher. He was a strong supporter of the American colonies, and a staunch opponent of the French Revolution. He is often regarded as the philosophical founder of Anglo-American Conservatism. Incredibly insightful Edmund Burke quotes will help you to broaden your horizons and become a better person.
If you’re searching for powerful quotes by philosophers that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of Marcus Tullius Cicero quotes, and famous Aristotle quotes.
Most Famous Edmund Burke Quotes
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke
Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it. Edmund Burke
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. Edmund Burke
The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis. Edmund Burke
Our patience will achieve more than our force. Edmund Burke
The essence of tyranny is the enforcement of stupid laws. Edmund Burke
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear. Edmund Burke
Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little. Edmund Burke
Good order is the foundation of all things. Edmund Burke
The Fate of good men who refuse to become involved in politics is to be ruled by evil men. Edmund Burke
But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever. Edmund Burke
When you fear something, learn as much about it as you can. Knowledge conquers fear. Edmund Burke
The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity. Edmund Burke
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. 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 must be 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
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
Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality. Edmund Burke
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
In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority. Edmund Burke
By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation. Edmund Burke
Silence is golden but when it threatens your freedom it’s yellow. Edmund Burke
Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government. Edmund Burke
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 anything but power for their relief. Edmund Burke
Facts are to the mind what food is to the body. Edmund Burke
History consists, for the greater part, of the miseries brought upon the world by pride, ambition, avarice, revenge, lust, sedition, hypocrisy, ungoverned zeal, and all the train of disorderly appetite. Edmund Burke
A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. Edmund Burke
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. Edmund Burke
To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men. Edmund Burke
What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man. Edmund Burke
Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist. Edmund Burke
Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion. Edmund Burke
Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together. Edmund Burke
All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing as they must if they believe they can do nothing. There is nothing worse because the council of despair is declaration of irresponsibility; it is Pilate washing his hands. Edmund Burke
We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature. Edmund Burke
The great difference between the real leader and the pretender is that the one sees into the future, while the other regards only the present; the one lives by the day, and acts upon expediency; the other acts on enduring principles and for the immortality. Edmund Burke
Free trade is not based on utility but on justice. Edmund Burke
A coward’s courage is in his tongue. Edmund Burke
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse. Edmund Burke
Men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told their duty. Edmund Burke
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. Edmund Burke
It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare. Edmund Burke
If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed. Edmund Burke
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. Edmund Burke
To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting. Edmund Burke
There is no safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men, and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief. Edmund Burke
Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair. Edmund Burke
Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist. Edmund Burke
Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other. Edmund Burke
People must be taken as they are, and we should never try make them or ourselves better by quarreling with them. Edmund Burke
The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth. Edmund Burke
Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant. Edmund Burke
Superstition is the religion of feeble minds. Edmund Burke
This sort of people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man that they have totally forgotten his nature. Edmund Burke
Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe. Edmund Burke
Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing. Edmund Burke
To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely. Edmund Burke
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
Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed. Edmund Burke
When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people. Edmund Burke
Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing. Edmund Burke
Freedom without virtue is not freedom but license to pursue whatever passions prevail in the intemperate mind; man’s right to freedom being in exact proportion to his willingness to put chains upon his own appetites; the less restraint from within, the more must be imposed from without. Edmund Burke
Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation. Edmund Burke
In history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of mankind. Edmund Burke
What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man. Edmund Burke
The greatest sin is to do nothing because you can only do a little. Edmund Burke
In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority. Edmund Burke
Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years. Edmund Burke
He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. Edmund Burke
The blood of man should never be shed but to redeem the blood of man. It is well shed for our family, for our friends, for our God, for our country, for our kind. The rest is vanity; the rest is crime. Edmund Burke
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. Edmund Burke
Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government. Edmund Burke
A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation. Edmund Burke
In a free country every man thinks he has a concern in all public matters, that he has a right to form and a right to deliver an opinion on them. This it is that fills countries with men of ability in all stations. Edmund Burke
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
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 hope and nothing to lose, will always be dangerous. Edmund Burke
Tyrants seldom want pretexts. Edmund Burke
Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe. Edmund Burke
Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle. Edmund Burke
Manners are of more importance than laws. 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. Edmund Burke
Beauty is the promise of happiness. Edmund Burke
In a democracy the majority of citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority and that oppression of the majority will extend to far great number, and will be carried on with much greater fury, than can almost ever be apprehended from the dominion of a single sceptre. Under a cruel prince they have the plaudits of the people to animate their generous constancy under their sufferings; but those who are subjected to wrong under multitudes are deprived of all external consolation they seem deserted by mankind, overpowered by a conspiracy of their whole species. Edmund Burke
Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little. Edmund Burke
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. Edmund Burke
You can never plan the future by the past. Edmund Burke
Despots govern by terror. They know that he who fears God fears nothing else; and therefore they eradicate from the mind, through their Voltaire, their Helvetius, and the rest of that infamous gang, that only sort of fear which generates true courage. Edmund Burke
Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion. Edmund Burke
