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A Kind Providence Has Placed In Our Breasts A Hatred Of The Unjust And Cruel, In Order That We May Preserve Ourselves From Cruelty And Injustice. They Who Bear Cruelty, Are Accomplices In It. The Pretended Gentleness Which Excludes That Charitable Rancour, Produces An Indifference Which Is Half An Approbation. They Never Will Love Where They Ought To Love, Who Do Not Hate Where They Ought To Hate.

-Edmund Burke

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A Kind Providence Has

Edmund Burke

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A Kind Providence Has Placed In Our Breasts A Hatred Of The Unjust And Cruel, In Order That We May Preserve Ourselves From Cruelty And Injustice. They Who Bear Cruelty, Are Accomplices In It. The Pretended Gentleness Which Excludes That Charitable Rancour, Produces An Indifference Which Is Half An Approbation. They Never Will Love Where They Ought To Love, Who Do Not Hate Where They Ought To Hate.

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The Perfection Of Conversation Is Not To Play A Regular Sonata, But, Like The Aeolian Harp, To Await The Inspiration Of The Passing Breeze.

Of This Stamp Is The Cant Of, Not Men, But Measures.

He Who Calls In The Aid Of An Equal Understanding Doubles His Own; And He Who Profits By A Superior Understanding Raises His Powers To A Level With The Height Of The Superior Standing He Unites With.

There Are Circumstances In Which Despair Does Not Imply Inactivity.

A Thing May Look Specious In Theory, And Yet Be Ruinous In Practice; A Thing May Look Evil In Theory, And Yet Be In Practice Excellent.

I Find Along With Many Virtues In My Countrymen There Is A Jealousy, A Soreness, And Readiness To Take Offence, As If They Were The Most Helpless And Impotent Of Mankind, And Yet A Violence... And A Boistrousness In Their Resentment, As If They Had Been Puffed Up With The Highest Prosperity And Power. They Will Not Only Be Served, But It Must Also Be In Their Own Way And On Their Own Principles And Even In Words And Language That They Liked... Which Renders It Very Difficult For A Plain Unguarded Man As I Am To Have Anything To Do With Them Or Their Affairs.

Neither The Few Nor The Many Have A Right To Act Merely By Their Will, In Any Matter Connected With Duty, Trust, Engagement, Or Obligation.

Tyrants Seldom Want Pretexts.

Is It In Destroying And Pulling Down That Skill Is Displayed? The Shallowest Understanding, The Rudest Hand, Is More Than Equal To That Task.

Parliament Is A Deliberative Assembly Of One Nation.you Choose A Member Indeed; But When You Have Chosen Him, Heisnotthe Member For Bristol, But Heisa Member Of Parliament.

We Must All Obey The Great Law Of Change. It Is The Most Powerful Law Of Nature.

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.

There Is A Sort Of Enthusiasm In All Projectors, Absolutely Necessary For Their Affairs, Which Makes Them Proof Against The Most Fatiguing Delays, The Most Mortifying Disappointments, The Most Shocking Insults; And, What Is Severer Than All, The Presumptuous Judgement Of The Ignorant Upon Their Designs.

Poetry, With All Its Obscurity, Has A More General As Well As A More Powerful Dominion Over The Passions Than The Art Of Painting.

The Nerve That Never Relaxes, The Eye That Never Blanches, The Thought That Never Wanders, The Purpose That Never Wavers - These Are The Masters Of Victory.

Men Who Undertake Considerable Things, Even In A Regular Way, Ought To Give Us Ground To Presume Ability.

He Only Deserves To Be Remembered By Posterity Who Treasures Up And Preserves The History Of His Ancestors.

The Concessions Of The Weak Are The Concessions Of Fear.

Prejudice Renders A Man's Virtue His Habit, And A Series Of Unconnected Arts. Though Just Prejudice, His Duty Becomes A Part Of His Nature.

Old Religious Factions Are Volcanoes Burnt Out.

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.

Next To Love, Sympathy Is The Divinest Passion Of The Human Heart.

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.

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.

No Passion So Effectually Robs The Mind Of All Its Powers Of Acting And Reasoning As Fear.

If The Prudence Of Reserve And Decorum Dictates Silence In Some Circumstances, In Others Prudence Of A Higher Order May Justify Us In Speaking Our Thoughts.

Curiosity Is The Most Superficial Of All The Affections; It Changes Its Object Perpetually; It Has An Appetite Which Is Very Sharp, But Very Easily Satisfied, And It Has Always An Appearance Of Giddiness, Restlessness And Anxiety.

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.

It Is A General Popular Error To Suppose The Loudest Complainers For The Public To Be The Most Anxious For Its Welfare.

Those Who Quit Their Proper Character To Assume What Does Not Belong To Them Are, For The Greater Part, Ignorant Both Of The Character They Leave And Of The Character They Assume.

In History, A Great Volume Is Unrolled For Our Instruction, Drawing The Materials Of Future Wisdom From The Past Errors And Infirmities Of Mankind.

Fellowship In Treason Is A Bad Ground Of Confidence.

Those Who Have Been Intoxicated With Power... Can Never Willingly Abandon It.

Fraud Is The Ready Minister Of Injustice.

Refined Policy Ever Has Been The Parent Of Confusion, And Ever Will Be So As Long As The World Endures. Plain Good Intention, Which Is As Easily Discovered At The First View As Fraud Is Surely Detected At Last, Is Of No Mean Force In The Government Of Mankind.

The Whole Compass Of The Language Is Tried To Find Sinonimies [synonyms] And Circumlocutions For Massacres And Murder. Things Never Called By Their Common Names. Massacre Is Sometimes Called Agitation, Sometimes Effervescence, Sometimes Excess Sometimes Too Continued An Exercise Of Revolutionary Power.

You Can Never Plan The Future By The Past.

Nothing So Effectually Deadens The Taste Of The Sublime As That Which Is Light And Radiant.

The Love Of Lucre, Though Sometimes Carried To A Ridiculous Excess, A Vicious Excess, Is The Grand Cause Of Prosperity To All States.

The Writers Against Religion, Whilst They Oppose Every System, Are Wisely Careful Never To Set Up Any Of Their Own.

Against Religion

It Is An Advantage To All Narrow Wisdom And Narrow Morals That Their Maxims Have A Plausible Air; And, On A Cursory View, Appear Equal To First Principles. They Are Light And Portable. They Are As Current As Copper Coin; And About As Valuable.

They Made And Recorded A Sort Of Institute And Digest Of Anarchy, Called The Rights Of Man.

Nobody Made A Greater Mistake Than He Who Did Nothing Because He Could Do Only A Little.

I Have Never Yet Seen Any Plan Which Has Not Been Mended By The Observations Of Those Who Were Much Inferior In Understanding To The Person Who Took The Lead In The Business.

The Fate Of Good Men Who Refuse To Become Involved In Politics Is To Be Ruled By Evil Men.

If We Owned The Property, We Will Be Free And Prosperous. If So They Regain Control, We Will Become Poor

Good Order Is The Foundation Of All Things.

A Perfect Democracy Is Therefore The Most Shameless Thing In The World.

A Populace Never Rebels From Passion For Attack, But From Impatience Of Suffering.

For There Is In Mankind An Unfortunate Propensity To Make Themselves, Their Views And Their Works, The Measure Of Excellence In Every Thing Whatsoever

Where Mystery Begins Religion Ends.

The Conduct Of A Losing Party Never Appears Right: At Least It Never Can Possess The Only Infallible Criterion Of Wisdom To Vulgar Judgements-success.

I Would Rather Sleep In The Southern Corner Of A Little Country Churchyard Than In The Tomb Of The Capulets.

Men Have No Right To What Is Not Reasonable, And To What Is Not For Their Benefit.

Great Men Are The Guideposts And Landmarks In The State.

The Tyranny Of A Multitude Is A Multiplied Tyranny.

As Mankind Becomes More Enlightened To Know Their Real Interests, They Will Esteem The Value Of Agriculture; They Will Find It In Their Natural--their Destined Occupation.

I Dread Our Own Power, And Our Own Ambition; I Dread Our Being Too Much Dreaded... We May Say That We Shall Not Abuse This Astonishing, And Hitherto Unheard-of-power. But Every Other Nation Will Think We Shall Abuse It. It Is Impossible But That, Sooner Or Later, This State Of Things Must Produce A Combination Against Us Which May End In Our Ruin.

The Worthy Gentleman Who Has Been Snatched From Us At The Moment Of The Election, And In The Middle Of The 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.

Falsehood And Delusion Are Allowed In No Case Whatever; But, As In The Exercise Of All The Virtues, There Is An Economy Of Truth. It Is A Sort Of Temperance, By Which A Man Speaks Truth With Measure, That He May Speak It The Longer.

No Men Can Act With Effect Who Do Not Act In Concert; No Men Can Act In Concert Who Do Not Act With Confidence; No Men Can Act With Confidence Who Are Not Bound Together With Common Opinions, Common Affections, And Common Interests.

The Question Is Not Whether You Have A Right To Render People Miserable, But Whether It Is Not In Your Best Interest To Make Them Happy.

I Do Not Hesitate To Say That The Road To Eminence And Power, From An Obscure Condition, Ought Not To Be Made Too Easy, Nor A Thing Too Much Of Course. If Rare Merit Be The Rarest Of All Things, It Ought To Pass Through Some Sort Of Probation. The Temple Of Honor Ought To Be Seated On An Eminence. If It Be Open Through Virtue, Let It Be Remembered, Too, That Virtue Is Never Tried But By Some Difficulty And Some Struggle.

As The Rose-tree Is Composed Of The Sweetest Flowers And The Sharpest Thorns, As The Heavens Are Sometimes Overcast—alternately Tempestuous And Serene—so Is The Life Of Man Intermingled With Hopes And Fears, With Joys And Sorrows, With Pleasure And Pain.

Whenever Government Abandons Law, It Proclaims Anarchy.

To Innovate Is Not To Reform.

In General The Languages Of Most Unpolished People Have A Great Force And Energy Of Expression; And This Is But Natural. Uncultivated People Are But Ordinary Observers Of Things, And Not Critical In Distinguishing Them; But, For That Reason, They Admire More, And Are More Affected With What They See, And Therefore Express Themselves In A Warmer And More Passionate Manner.

We Begin Our Public Affection In Our Families. No Cold Relation Is A Zealous Citizen.

I Do Not Know The Method Of Drawing Up An Indictment Against A Whole People.

Taxing Is An Easy Business. Any Projector Can Contrive New Compositions, Any Bungler Can Add To The Old.

Among Precautions Against Ambition, It May Not Be Amiss To Take Precautions Against Our Own. I Must Fairly Say, I Dread Our Own Power And Our Own Ambition: I Dread Our Being Too Much Dreaded.

The Wise Determine From The Gravity Of The Case; The Irritable, From Sensibility To Oppression; The High Minded, From Disdain And Indignation At Abusive Power In Unworthy Hands.

Religion, To Have Any Force Upon Men's Understandings,--indeed, To Exist At All,--must Be Supposed Paramount To Law, And Independent For Its Substance Upon Any Human Institution, Else It Would Be The Absurdest Thing In The World,--an Acknowledged Cheat.

There Is Nothing That God Has Judged Good For Us That He Has Not Given Us The Means To Accomplish, Both In The Natural And The Moral World.

A Kind Providence Has Placed In Our Breasts A Hatred Of The Unjust And Cruel, In Order That We May Preserve Ourselves From Cruelty And Injustice. They Who Bear Cruelty, Are Accomplices In It. The Pretended Gentleness Which Excludes That Charitable Rancour, Produces An Indifference Which Is Half An Approbation. They Never Will Love Where They Ought To Love, Who Do Not Hate Where They Ought To Hate.

He That Accuses All Mankind Of Corruption Ought To Remember That He Is Sure To Convict Only One.

Some Decent Regulated Pre-eminence, Some Preference (not Exclusive Appropriation) Given To Birth, Is Neither Unnatural, Nor Unjust, Nor Impolite.

My Hold Of The Colonies Is In The Close Affection Which Grows From Common Names, From Kindred Blood, From Similar Privileges, And Equal Protection. These Are Ties Which, Though Light As Air, Are As Strong As Links Of Iron.

Fiction Lags After Truth, Invention Is Unfruitful, And Imagination Cold And Barren.

True Religion Is The Foundation Of Society. When That Is Once Shaken By Contempt, The Whole Fabric Cannot Be Stable Nor Lasting.

When Any Work Seems To Have Required Immense Force And Labor To Effect It, The Idea Is Grand.

Evils We Have Had Continually Calling For Reformation, And Reformations More Grievous Than Any Evils.

Superstition Is The Religion Of Feeble Minds.

Instead Of Casting Away All Our Old Prejudices, We Cherish Them To A Very Considerable Degree, And, To Take More Shame To Ourselves, We Cherish Them Because They Are Prejudices; And The Longer They Have Lasted And The More Generally They Have Prevailed, The More We Cherish Them. We Are Afraid To Put Men To Live And Trade Each On His Own Private Stock Of Reason; Because We Suspect That This Stock In Each Man Is Small, And That The Individuals Would Do Better To Avail Themselves Of The General Bank And Capital Of Nations And Of Ages.

We Set Ourselves To Bite The Hand That Feeds Us.

My Vigour Relents. I Pardon Something To The Spirit Of Liberty.

Too Much Idleness, I Have Observed, Fills Up A Man's Time More Completely And Leaves Him Less His Own Master, Than Any Sort Of Employment Whatsoever

To Be Struck With His Power, It Is Only Necessary To Open Our Eyes.

A Great Deal Of The Furniture Of Ancient Tyranny Is Torn To Rags; The Rest Is Entirely Out Of Fashion.

It Is In The Relaxation Of Security; It Is In The Expansion Of Prosperity; It Is In The Hour Of Dilatation Of The Heart, And Of Its Softening Into Festivity And Pleasure, That The Real Character Of Men Is Discerned.

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.

It Is Known That The Taste--whatever It Is--is Improved Exactly As We Improve Our Judgment, By Extending Our Knowledge, By A Steady Attention To Our Object, And By Frequent Exercise.

Religion Is Among The Most Powerful Causes Of Enthusiasm.

In This Choice Of Inheritance We Have Given To Our Frame Of Polity The Image Of A Relation In Blood; Binding Up The Constitution Of Our Country With Our Dearest Domestic Ties; Adopting Our Fundamental Laws Into The Bosom Of Our Family Affections; Keeping Inseparable And Cherishing With The Warmth Of All Their Combined And Mutually Reflected Charities, Our State, Our Hearths, Our Sepulchres, And Our Altars.

Silence Is Golden But When It Threatens Your Freedom It's Yellow.

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.

For As Wealth Is Power, So All Power Will Infallibly Draw Wealth To Itself By Some Means Or Other; And When Men Are Left No Way Of Ascertaining Their Profits But By Their Means Of Obtaining Them, Those Means Will Be Increased To Infinity.

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. The Apparent Disorder Augments The Grandeur, For The Appearance Of Care Is Highly Contrary To Our Ideas Of Magnificence. Besides, The Stars Lie In Such Apparent Confusion, As Makes It Impossible On Ordinary Occasions To Reckon Them. This Gives Them The Advantage Of A Sort Of Infinity.

Man Acts From Adequate Motives Relative To His Interest, And Not On Metaphysical Speculations.

Public Calamity Is A Mighty Leveller.

Art Is A Partnership Not Only Between Those Who Are Living But Between Those Who Are Dead And Those Who Are Yet To Be Born.

Bad Laws Are The Worst Sort Of Tyranny.

The Public Interest Requires Doing Today Those Things That Men Of Intelligence And Good Will Would Wish, Five Or Ten Years Hence, Had Been Done.

Dogs Are Indeed The Most Social, Affectionate, And Amiable Animals Of The Whole Brute Creation.

The Truly Sublime Is Always Easy, And Always Natural.

The Pride Of Men Will Not Often Suffer Reason To Have Scope Until It Can Be No Longer Of Service.

What Is It We All Seek For In An Election? To Answer Its Real Purposes, You Must First Possess The Means Of Knowing The Fitness Of Your Man; And Then You Must Retain Some Hold Upon Him By Personal Obligation Or Dependence.

I Own That There Is A Haughtiness And Fierceness In Human Nature Which Will Cause Innumerable Broils, Place Men In What Situation You Please.

The Tribunal Of Conscience Exists Independent Of Edicts And Decrees.

Men Are As Much Blinded By The Extremes Of Misery As By The Extremes Of Prosperity.

Politics And The Pulpit Are Terms That Have Little Agreement. No Sound Ought To Be Heard In The Church But The Healing Voice Of Christian Charity. The Cause Of Civil Liberty And Civil Government Gains As Little As That Of Religion By This Confusion Of Duties. Those Who Quit Their Proper Character To Assume What Does Not Belong To Them Are, For The Greater Part, Ignorant Both Of The Character They Leave And Of The Character They Assume.

Genuine Simplicity Of Heart Is A Healing And Cementing Principle.

All That Needs To Be Done For Evil To Prevail Is Good Men Doing Nothing.

The Superfluities Of A Rich Nation Furnish A Better Object Of Trade Than The Necessities Of A Poor One. It Is The Interest Of The Commercial World That Wealth Should Be Found Everywhere.

Over-taxation Cost England Her Colonies Of North America.

An Event Has Happened, Upon Which It Is Difficult To Speak, And Impossible To Be Silent.

The Men Of England,- The Men, I Mean, Of Light And Leading In England.

If You Can Be Well Without Health, You May Be Happy Without Virtue.

Taste And Elegance, Though They Are Reckoned Only Among The Smaller And Secondary Morals, Yet Are Of No Mean Importance In The Regulations Of Life. A Moral Taste Is Not Of Force To Turn Vice Into Virtue; But It Recommends Virtue With Something Like The Blandishments Of Pleasure, And It Infinitely Abates The Evils Of Vice.

Corrupt Influence Is Itself The Perennial Spring Of All Prodigality, And Of All Disorder; It Loads Us More Than Millions Of Debt; 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.

Men Love To Hear Of Their Power, But Have An Extreme Disrelish To Be Told Their Duty.

One That Confounds Good And Evil Is An Enemy To Good.

I Thought Ten Thousand Swords Must Have Leaped From Their Scabbards To Avenge Even A Look That Threatened Her With Insult. But The Age Of Chivalry Is Gone.

By Hating Vices Too Much, They Come To Love Men Too Little.

War Never Leaves Where It Found A Nation.

Old Religious Factions Are Volcanoes Burned Out; On The Lava And Ashes And Squalid Scoriae Of Old Eruptions Grow The Peaceful Olive, The Cheering Vine And The Sustaining Corn.

The Grand Instructor, Time.

The Marketplace Obliges Men, Whether They Will Or Not, In Pursuing Their Own Selfish Interests, To Connect The General Good With Their Own Individual Success.

Power Gradually Extirpates From The Mind Every Humane And Gentle Virtue.

Beauty Is The Promise Of Happiness.

Writers, Especially When They Act In A Body And With One Direction, Have Great Influence On The Public Mind.

It Is Ordained In The Eternal Constitution Of Things, That Men Of Intemperate Minds Cannot Be Free. Their Passions Forge Their Fetters.

Nothing Turns Out To Be So Oppressive And Unjust As A Feeble Government.

Oppressive Governments

There Is Nothing In The World Really Beneficial That Does Not Lie Within The Reach Of An Informed Understanding And A Well-protected Pursuit.

Example Is The School Of Mankind, And They Will Learn At No Other.

Make The Revolution A Parent Of Settlement, And Not A Nursery Of Future Revolutions.

As To Great And Commanding Talents, They Are The Gift Of Providence In Some Way Unknown To Us, They Rise Where They Are Least Expected; They Fail When Everything Seems Disposed To Produce Them, Or At Least To Call Them Forth.

Our Manners, Our Civilization, And All The Good Things Connected With Manners And Civilization, Have, In This European World Of Ours, Depended For Ages Upon Two Principles: I Mean The Spirit Of A Gentleman, And The Spirit Of Religion.

Better To Be Despised For Too Anxious Apprehensions Than Ruined By Too Confident A Security.

There Ought To Be System Of Manners In Every Nation Which A Well-formed Mind Would Be Disposed To Relish. To Make Us Love Our Country, Our Country Ought To Be Lovely.

Kings Will Be Tyrants From Policy, When Subjects Are Rebels From Principle.

They Never Will Love Where They Ought To Love, Who Do Not Hate Where They Ought To Hate.

General Rebellions And Revolts Of A Whole People Never Were Encouraged Now Or At Any Time. They Are Always Provoked.

Where Two Motives, Neither Of Them Perfectly Justifiable, May Be Assigned, The Worst Has The Chance Of Being Preferred.

It Is The Love Of The People; It Is Their Attachment To Their Government, From The Sense Of The Deep Stake They Have In Such A Glorious Institution, Which Gives You Your Army 168 And Your Navy, And Infuses Into Both That Liberal Obedience, Without Which Your Army Would Be A Base Rabble, And Your Navy Nothing But Rotten Timber.

Religion Is Essentially The Art And The Theory Of The Remaking Of Man. Man Is Not A Finished Creation.

The Very Name Of A Politician, A Statesman, Is Sure To Cause Terror And Hatred; It Has Always Connected With It The Ideas Of Treachery, Cruelty, Fraud, And Tyranny.

By This Unprincipled Facility Of Changing The State As Often, And As Much, And In As Many Ways As There Are Floating Fancies Or Fashions, The Whole Chain And Continuity Of The Commonwealth Would Be Broken. No One Generation Could Link With The Other. Men Would Become Little Better Than The Flies Of A Summer.

Flattery Corrupts Both The Receiver And The Giver.

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.

It Ought To Be The Happiness And Glory Of A Representative To Live In The Strictest Union, The Closest Correspondence, And The Most Unreserved Communication With His Constituents. Their Wishes Ought To Have Great Weight With Him; Their Opinion, High Respect; Their Business, Unremitted Attention.

The Objects Of A Financier Are, Then, To Secure An Ample Revenue; To Impose It With Judgment And Equality; To Employ It Economically; And, When Necessity Obliges Him To Make Use Of Credit, To Secure Its Foundations In That Instance, And For Ever, By The Clearness And Candor Of His Proceedings, The Exactness Of His Calculations, And The Solidity Of His Funds.

Laws, Like Houses, Lean On One Another.

The Introduction Of Christianity, Which, Under Whatever Form, Always Confers Such Inestimable Benefits On Mankind, Soon Made A Sensible Change In These Rude And Fierce Manners.

That Cardinal Virtue, Temperance.

Hypocrisy Can Afford To Be Magnificent In Its Promises, For Never Intending To Go Beyond Promise, It Costs Nothing.

Broken Promises

It Is, Generally, In The Season Of Prosperity That Men Discover Their Real Temper, Principles, And Designs.

Whenever A Separation Is Made Between Liberty And Justice, Neither, In My Opinion, Is Safe.

Religion Is The Basis Of Civil Society, And The Source Of All Good And Of All Comfort.

But Whoever Is A Genuine Follower Of Truth, Keeps His Eye Steady Upon His Guide, Indifferent Whither He Is Led, Provided That She Is The Leader.

To Govern According To The Sense And Agreement Of The Interests Of The People Is A Great And Glorious Object Of Governance. This Object Cannot Be Obtained But Through The Medium Of Popular Election, And Popular Election Is A Mighty Evil.

The Most Important Of All Revolutions, A Revolution In Sentiments, Manners And Moral Opinions.

It Is By Bribing, Not So Often By Being Bribed, That Wicked Politicians Bring Ruin On Mankind. Avarice Is A Rival To The Pursuits Of Many.

Flattery Corrupts Both The Receiver And The Giver; And Adulation Is Not Of More Service To The People Than To Kings.

Toleration Is Good For All, Or It Is Good For None.

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.

Nothing, Indeed, But The Possession Of Some Power Can With Any Certainty Discover What At The Bottom Is The True Character Of Any Man.

Man Is By His Constitution A Religious Animal; Atheism Is Against Not Only Our Reason, But Our Instincts.

Whenever Our Neighbour's House Is On Fire, It Cannot Be Amiss For The Engines To Play A Little On Our Own.

There Are Three Estates In Parliament But In The Reporters' Gallery Yonder There Sits A Fourth Estate More Important Far Than They All. It Is Not A Figure Of Speech Or Witty Saying, It Is A Literal Fact, Very Momentous To Us In These Times.

Applaud Us When We Run, Console Us When We Fall, Cheer Us When We Recover.

The Great Inlet By Which A Colour For Oppression Has Entered Into The World Is By One Man's Pretending To Determine Concerning The Happiness Of Another.

No Sound Ought To Be Heard In The Church But The Healing Voice Of Christian Charity.

Futurity Is The Great Concern Of Mankind.

War Is The Matter Which Fills All History; And Consequently The Only, Or Almost The Only, View In Which We Can See The External Of Political Society Is In A Hostile Shape: And The Only Actions To Which We Have Always Seen, And Still See, All Of Them Intent, Are Such As Tend To The Destruction Of One Another.

If The People Are Happy, United, Wealthy, And Powerful, We Presume The Rest. We Conclude That To Be Good From Whence Good Is Derived.

You Will Not Think It Unnatural That Those Who Have An Object Depending, Which Strongly Engages Their Hopes And Fears, Should Be Somewhat Inclining To Superstition.

In All Forms Of Government The People Is The True Legislator.

The Arrogance Of Age Must Submit To Be Taught By Youth.

Arrogance Of Youth

A Great Empire And Little Minds Go Ill Together.

"war," Says Machiavelli, "ought To Be The Only Study Of A Prince;" And By A Prince He Means Every Sort Of State, However Constituted. "he Ought," Says This Great Political Doctor, "to Consider Peace Only As A Breathing-time, Which Gives Him Leisure To Contrive, And Furnishes Ability To Execute Military Plans." A Meditation On The Conduct Of Political Societies Made Old Hobbes Imagine That War Was The State Of Nature.

In Such A Strait The Wisest May Well Be Perplexed And The Boldest Staggered.

Restraint And Discipline And Examples Of Virtue And Justice. These Are The Things That Form The Education Of The World.

People Must Be Taken As They Are, And We Should Never Try Make Them Or Ourselves Better By Quarreling With Them.

Crimes Lead Into One Another. They Who Are Capable Of Being Forgers, Are Capable Of Being Incendiaries.

A Nation Without Means Of Reform Is Without Means Of Survival.

A Jealous Lover Lights His Torch From The Firebrand Of The Fiend.

A State Without The Means Of Some Change Is Without The Means Of Its Conservation.

The Body Of All True Religion Consists, To Be Sure, In Obedience To The Will Of The Sovereign Of The World, In A Confidence In His Declarations, And In Imitation Of His Perfections.

Jacobinism Is The Revolt Of The Enterprising Talents Of A Country Against Its Property.

The Nature Of Things Is, I Admit, A Sturdy Adversary.

There Are Cases In Which A Man Would Be Ashamed Not To Have Been Imposed Upon. There Is A Confidence Necessary To Human Intercourse, And Without Which Men Are Often More Injured By Their Own Suspicions Than They Would Be By The Perfidy Of Others.

In A Democracy, The Majority Of The Citizens Is Capable Of Exercising The Most Cruel Oppressions Upon The Minority.

To Reach The Height Of Our Ambition Is Like Trying To Reach The Rainbow; As We Advance It Recedes.

In Their Nomination To Office They Will Not Appoint To The Exercise Of Authority As To A Pitiful Job, But As To A Holy Function.

Early And Provident Fear Is The Mother Of Safety.

When Slavery Is Established In Any Part Of The World, Those Who Are Free Are By Far The Most Proud And Jealous Of Their Freedom.

Wise Men Will Apply Their Remedies To Vices, Not To Names; To The Causes Of Evil Which Are Permanent, Not The Occasional Organs By Which They Act, And The Transitory Modes In Which They Appear.

All Human Laws Are, Properly Speaking, Only Declaratory; They May Alter The Mode And Application, But Have No Power Over The Substance Of Original Justice.

Tell Me What Are The Prevailing Sentiments That Occupy The Minds Of Your Young Peoples, And I Will Tell You What Is To Be The Character Of The Next Generation.

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