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All Writers On The Science Of Policy Are Agreed, And They Agree With Experience, That All Governments Must Frequently Infringe The Rules Of Justice To Support Themselves; That Truth Must Give Way To Dissimulation, Honesty To Convenience, And Humanity Itself To The Reigning Of Interest. The Whole Of This Mystery Of Iniquity Is Called The Reason Of State.

-Edmund Burke

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All Writers On The

Edmund Burke

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All Writers On The Science Of Policy Are Agreed, And They Agree With Experience, That All Governments Must Frequently Infringe The Rules Of Justice To Support Themselves; That Truth Must Give Way To Dissimulation, Honesty To Convenience, And Humanity Itself To The Reigning Of Interest. The Whole Of This Mystery Of Iniquity Is Called The Reason Of State.

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The Greatest Crimes Do Not Arise From A Want Of Feeling For Others But From An Over-sensibilit Y For Ourselves And An Over-indulgence To Our Own Desires

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

And Having Looked To Government For Bread, On The Very First Scarcity They Will Turn And Bite The Hand That Fed Them.

Government Welfare

It Is The Interest Of The Commercial World That Wealth Should Be Found Everywhere.

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.

Religion Is Among The Most Powerful Causes Of Enthusiasm.

Religious Persecution May Shield Itself Under The Guise Of A Mistaken And Over-zealous Piety.

God Has Sometimes Converted Wickedness Into Madness; And It Is To The Credit Of Human Reason That Men Who Are Not In Some Degree Mad Are Never Capable Of Being In The Highest Degree Wicked.

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.

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.

In The Groves Of Their Academy, At The End Of Every Vista, You See Nothing But The Gallows.

Contempt Is Not A Thing To Be Despised. It May Be Borne With A Calm And Equal Mind, But No Man, By Lifting His Head High, Can Pretend That He Does Not Perceive The Scorns That Are Poured Down On Him From Above.

He Was Not Merely A Chip Off The Old Block, But The Old Block Itself.

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

That The Greatest Security Of The People, Against The Encroachments And Usurpations Of Their Superiors, Is To Keep The Spirit Of Liberty Constantly Awake, Is An Undeniable Truth

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

"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.

Man Is By His Constitution A Religious Animal.

The Ocean Is An Object Of No Small Terror.

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.

The Individual Is Foolish; The Multitude, For The Moment Is Foolish, When They Act Without Deliberation; But The Species Is Wise, And, When Time Is Given To It, As A Species It Always Acts Right.

Whilst Shame Keeps Its Watch, Virtue Is Not Wholly Extinguished In The Heart; Nor Will Moderation Be Utterly Exiled From The Minds Of Tyrants.

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

Between Craft And Credulity, The Voice Of Reason Is Stifled.

By Gnawing Through A Dike, Even A Rat May Drown A Nation.

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

The People Never Give Up Their Liberties But Under Some Delusion.

It Is The Function Of A Judge Not To Make But To Declare The Law, According To The Golden Mete-wand Of The Law And Not By The Crooked Cord Of Discretion.

Nothing Is So Fatal To Religion As Indifference.

Learning Will Be Cast Into The Mire And Trodden Down Under The Hoofs Of A Swinish Multitude.

A Disposition To Preserve, And An Ability To Improve, Taken Together, Would Be My Standard Of A Statesman.

Continue To Instruct The World; And - Whilst We Carry On A Poor Unequal Conflict With The Passions And Prejudices Of Our Day, Perhaps With No Better Weapons Than Other Passions And Prejudices Of Our Own - Convey Wisdom To Future Generations.

Men Want To Be Reminded, Who Do Not Want To Be Taught; Because Those Original Ideas Of Rectitude To Which The Mind Is Compelled To Assent When They Are Proposed, Are Not Always As Present To Us As They Ought To Be.

Turbulent, Discontented Men Of Quality, In Proportion As They Are Puffed Up With Personal Pride And Arrogance, Generally Despise Their Own Order.

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.

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

All Men That Are Ruined, Are Ruined On The Side Of Their Natural Propensities.

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.

You Will Smile Here At The Consistency Of Those Democratists Who, When They Are Not On Their Guard, Treat The Humbler Part Of The Community With The Greatest Contempt, Whilst, At The Same Time They Pretend To Make Them The Depositories Of All Power.

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.

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.

Among A People Generally Corrupt Liberty Cannot Long Exist.

Fellowship In Treason Is A Bad Ground Of Confidence.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

The Greatest Sin Is To Do Nothing Because You Can Only Do A Little.

Making A Difference

It Is Better To Cherish Virtue And Humanity, By Leaving Much To Free Will, Even With Some Loss Of The Object , Than To Attempt To Make Men Mere Machines And Instruments Of Political Benevolence. The World On The Whole Will Gain By A Liberty, Without Which Virtue Cannot Exist.

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

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.

To Drive Men From Independence To Live On Alms, Is Itself Great Cruelty.

I Venture To Say No War Can Be Long Carried On Against The Will Of The People.

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

The People Of England Well Know That The Idea Of Inheritance Furnishes A Sure Principle Of Conservation And A Sure Principle Of Transmission, Without At All Excluding A Principle Of Improvement.

They [americans] Augur Misgovernment At A Distance And Snuff The Approach Of Tyranny In Every Tainted Breeze.

Passion For Fame: A Passion Which Is The Instinct Of All Great Souls.

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.

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.

There Are Circumstances In Which Despair Does Not Imply Inactivity.

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

Men Have No Right To Put The Well-being Of The Present Generation Wholly Out Of The Question. Perhaps The Only Moral Trust With Any Certainty In Our Hands Is The Care Of Our Own Time.

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 First And Simplest Emotion Which We Discover In The Human Mind, Is Curiosity.

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.

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

The Tyranny Of A Multitude Is A Multiplied Tyranny.

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.

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

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

The Great Error Of Our Nature Is, Not To Know Where To Stop, Not To Be Satisfied With Any Reasonable Acquirement; Not To Compound With Our Condition; But To Lose All We Have Gained By An Insatiable Pursuit After More.

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

All Virtue Which Is Impracticable Is Spurious.

[slavery] Is A Weed That Grows In Every Soil.

I Decline The Election. It Has Ever Been My Rule Through Life, To Observe A Proportion Between My Efforts And My Objects. I Have Never Been Remarkable For A Bold, Active, And Sanguine Pursuit Of Advantages That Are Personal To Myself.

Whenever Government Abandons Law, It Proclaims Anarchy.

Bad Laws Are The Worst Sort Of Tyranny.

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.

There Never Was A Bad Man That Had Ability For Good Service.

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

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

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.

The Liberty I Mean Is Social Freedom. It Is That State Of Things In Which Liberty Is Secured By The Equality Of Restraint. A Constitution Of Things In Which The Liberty Of No One Man, And No Body Of Men, And No Number Of Men, Can Find Means To Trespass On The Liberty Of Any Person, Or Any Description Of Persons, In The Society. This Kind Of Liberty Is, Indeed, But Another Name For Justice.

Good Order Is The Foundation Of All Things.

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

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

The Moment That Government Appears At Market, The Principles Of The Market Will Be Subverted.

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

The Religion Most Prevalent In Our Northern Colonies Is A Refinement On The Principles Of Resistance: It Is The Dissidence Of Dissent, And The Protestantism Of The Protestant Religion.

Unsociable Humors Are Contracted In Solitude, Which Will, In The End, Not Fail Of Corrupting The Understanding As Well As The Manners, And Of Utterly Disqualifying A Man For The Satisfactions And Duties Of Life. Men Must Be Taken As They Are, And We Neither Make Them Or Ourselves Better By Flying From Or Quarreling With Them.

It Is Undoubtedly True, Though It May Seem Paradoxical,--but, In General, Those Who Are Habitually Employed In Finding And Displaying Faults Are Unqualified For The Work Of Reformation.

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

An Appearance Of Delicacy, And Even Fragility, Is Almost Essential To Beauty.

We Set Ourselves To Bite The Hand That Feeds Us.

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.

No Man Can Mortgage His Injustice As A Pawn For His Fidelity.

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

Taxing Is An Easy Business. Any Projector Can Contrive New Impositions; Any Bungler Can Add To The Old; But Is It Altogether Wise To Have No Other Bounds To Your Impositions Than The Patience Of Those Who Are To Bear Them?

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.

Obstinacy, Sir, Is Certainly A Great Vice; And In The Changeful State Of Political Affairs It Is Frequently The Cause Of Great Mischief. It Happens, However, Very Unfortunately, That Almost The Whole Line Of The Great And Masculine Virtues--constancy, Gravity, Magnanimity, Fortitude, Fidelity, And Firmness--are Closely Allied To This Disagreeable Quality, Of Which You Have So Just An Abhorrence; And In Their Excess All These Virtues Very Easily Fall Into It.

Poetry Is The Art Of Substantiating Shadows, And Of Lending Existence To Nothing.

When You Find Me Attempting To Break Into Your House To Take Your Plate, Under Any Pretence Whatsoever, But Most Of All Under Pretence Of Purity Of Religion And Christian Charity Shoot Me For A Robber And A Hypocrite, As In That Case I Shall Certainly Be.

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

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.

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.

It Is The Nature Of Tyranny And Rapacity Never To Learn Moderation From The Ill-success Of First Oppressions; On The Contrary, All Oppressors, All Men Thinking Highly Of The Methods Dictated By Their Nature, Attribute The Frustration Of Their Desires To The Want Of Sufficient Rigor.

There Is A Courageous Wisdom; There Is Also A False, Reptile Prudence, The Result Not Of Caution But Of Fear.

The Credulity Of Dupes Is As Inexhaustible As The Invention Of Knaves.

Vice Incapacitates A Man From All Public Duty; It Withers The Powers Of His Under- Standing, And Makes His Mind Paralytic.

Parliament Is Not A Congress Of Ambassadors From Different And Hostile Interests; Which Interests Each Must Maintain, As An Agent And Advocate, Against Other Agents And Advocates; But Parliament Is A Deliberative Assembly Of One Nation, With One Interest, That Of The Whole; Where, Not Local Purposes, Not Local Prejudices Ought To Guide, But The General Good, Resulting From The General Reason Of The Whole. You Choose A Member Indeed; But When You Have Chosen Him, He Is Not A Member Of Bristol, But He Is A Member Of Parliament.

Of All Things, Wisdom Is The Most Terrified With Epidemical Fanaticism, Because, Of All Enemies, It Is That Against Which She Is The Least Able To Furnish Any Kind Of Resource.

Surely The Church Is A Place Where One Day's Truce Ought To Be Allowed To The Dissensions And Animosities Of Mankind.

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

Free Trade Is Not Based On Utility But On Justice.

A Man Is Allowed Sufficient Freedom Of Thought, Provided He Knows How To Choose His Subject Properly.... But The Scene Is Changed As You Come Homeward, And Atheism Or Treason May Be The Names Given In Britain To What Would Be Reason And Truth If Asserted In China.

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.

Laws Are Commanded To Hold Their Tongues Among Arms; And Tribunals Fall To The Ground With The Peace They Are No Longer Able To Uphold.

Freedom And Not Servitude Is The Cure Of Anarchy; As Religion, And Not Atheism, Is The True Remedy Of Superstition.

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

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.

Not Men But Measures A Sort Of Charm By Which Many People Get Loose From Every Honorable Engagement.

People Will Not Look Forward To Posterity, Who Never Look Backward To Their Ancestors.

The Power Of Discretionary Disqualification By One Law Of Parliament, And The Necessity Of Paying Every Debt Of The Civil List By Another Law Of Parliament, If Suffered To Pass Unnoticed, Must Establish Such A Fund Of Rewards And Terrors As Will Make Parliament The Best Appendage And Support Of Arbitrary Power That Ever Was Invented By The Wit Of Man.

To Read Without Reflecting Is Like Eating Without Digesting.

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.

I Am Convinced That We Have A Degree Of Delight, And That No Small One, In The Real Misfortunes And Pain Of Others

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

Nnothing Tends More To The Corruption Of Science Than To Suffer It To Stagnate. These Waters Must Be Troubled, Before They Can Exert Their Virtues.

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

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

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.

Depend Upon It That The Lovers Of Freedom Will Be Free.

Teach Me, O Lark! With Thee To Greatly Rise, To Exalt My Soul And Lift It To The Skies.

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.

He Had No Failings Which Were Not Owing To A Noble Cause; To An Ardent, Generous, Perhaps An Immoderate Passion For Fame; A Passion Which Is The Instinct Of All Great Souls.

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

It Is By Imitation, Far More Than By Precept, That We Learn Everything; And What We Learn Thus, We Acquire Not Only More Effectually, But More Pleasantly.

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.

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

There Is A Wide Difference Between Admiration And Love. The Sublime, Which Is The Cause Of The Former, Always Dwells On Great Objects And Terrible; The Latter On Small Ones And Pleasing; We Submit To What We Admire, But We Love What Submits To Us: In One Case We Are Forced, In The Other, We Are Flattered, Into Compliance.

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.

Whatever Is Fitted In Any Sort To Excite The Ideas Of Pain And Danger, That Is To Say, Whatever Is In Any Sort Terrible, Or Is Conversant About Terrible Objects, Or Operates In A Manner Analogous To Terror, Is A Source Of The Sublime; That Is, It Is Productive Of The Strongest Emotion Which The Mind Is Capable Of Feeling... When Danger Or Pain Press Too Nearly, They Are Incapable Of Giving Any Delight, And Are Simply Terrible; But At Certain Distances, And With Certain Modifications, They May Be, And They Are, Delightful, As We Every Day Experience.

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

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

Vice Itself Lost Half Its Evil, By Losing All Its Grossness.

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.

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.

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

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.

By Looking Into Physical Causes Our Minds Are Opened And Enlarged; And In This Pursuit, Whether We Take Or Whether We Lose The Game, The Chase Is Certainly Of Service.

The True Danger Is When Liberty Is Nibbled Away, For Expedience, And By Parts.

I Have Not Yet Lost A Feeling Of Wonder, And Of Delight, That The Delicate Motion Should Reside In All The Things Around Us, Revealing Itself Only To Him Who Looks For It.

Those Who Don't Know History Are Destined To Repeat It.

Mere Parsimony Is Not Economy. Expense, And Great Expense, May Be An Essential Part In True Economy.

The March Of The Human Mind Is Slow.

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.

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.

Greater Mischief Happens Often From Folly, Meanness, And Vanity Than From The Greater Sins Of Avarice And Ambition.

To Complain Of The Age We Live In, To Murmur At The Present Possessors Of Power, To Lament The Past, To Conceive Extravagant Hopes Of The Future, Are The Common Dispositions Of The Greatest Part Of Mankind.

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.

I Am Not One Of Those Who Think That The People Are Never In The Wrong. They Have Been So, Frequently And Outrageously, Both In Other Countries And In This. But I Do Say That In All Disputes Between Them And Their Rulers, The Presumption Is At Least Upon A Par In Favour Of The People.

All Government Is Founded On Compromise And Banter.

True Humility-the Basis Of The Christian System-is The Low But Deep And Firm Foundation Of All Virtues.

Education Is The Cheap Defense Of Nations.

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

In The Weakness Of One Kind Of Authority, And In The Fluctuation Of All, The Officers Of An Army Will Remain For Some Time Mutinous And Full Of Faction, Until Some Popular General, Who Understands The Art Of Conciliating The Soldiery, And Who Possesses The True Spirit Of Command, Shall Draw The Eyes Of All Men Upon Himself. Armies Will Obey Him On His Personal Account. There Is No Other Way Of Securing Military Obedience In This State Of Things.

The Use Of Force Alone Is But Temporary. It May Subdue For A Moment; But It Does Not Remove The Necessity Of Subduing Again; And A Nation Is Not Governed, Which Is Perpetually To Be Conquered.

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

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.

Man Is An Animal That Cooks His Victuals.

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.

The Only Thing Necessary For The Triumph Of Evil Is For Good Men To Do Nothing.

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

Broken Promises

All The Forces Of Darkness Need To Succeed ... Is For The People To Do Nothing.

I Have Been Told By An Eminent Bookseller, That In No Branch Of His Business , After Tracts Of Popular Devotion, Were So Many Books As Those On The Law Exported To The Plantations .

The Poorest Being That Crawls On Earth, Contending To Save Itself From Injustice And Oppression, Is An Object Respectable In The Eyes Of God And Man.

The Power Of Perpetuating Our Property In Our Families Is One Of The Most Valuable And Interesting Circumstances Belonging To It, And That Which Tends Most To The Perpetuation Of Society Itself. It Makes Our Weakness Subservient To Our Virtue; It Grafts Benevolence Even Upon Avarice. The Possession Of Family Wealth And Of The Distinction Which Attends Hereditary Possessions (as Most Concerned In It,) Are The Natural Securities For This Transmission.

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.

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.

The Science Of Constructing A Commonwealth, Or Renovating It, Or Reforming It, Is, Like Every Other Experimental Science, Not To Be Taught A Priori. Nor Is It A Short Experience That Can Instruct Us In That Practical Science, Because The Real Effects Of Moral Causes Are Not Always Immediate.

Turn Over A New Leaf.

Prejudice Is Of Ready Application In The Emergency; It Previously Engages The Mind In A Steady Course Of Wisdom And Virtue, And Does Not Leave The Man Hesitating In The Moment Of Decision, Skeptical, Puzzled And Unresolved. Prejudice Renders A Man's Virtue His Habit; And Not A Series Of Unconnected Acts. Through Past Prejudice, His Duty Becomes Part Of His Nature.

To Execute Laws Is A Royal Office; To Execute Orders Is Not To Be A King. However, A Political Executive Magistracy, Though Merely Such, Is A Great Trust.

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.

Virtue Will Catch As Well As Vice By Contact; And The Public Stock Of Honest Manly Principle Will Daily Accumulate. We Are Not Too Nicely To Scrutinize Motives As Long As Action Is Irreproachable. It Is Enough (and For A Worthy Man Perhaps Too Much) To Deal Out Its Infamy To Convicted Guilt And Declared Apostasy.

Our Patience Will Achieve More Than Our Force.

Many Of The Greatest Tyrants On The Records Of History Have Begun Their Reigns In The Fairest Manner. But The Truth Is, This Unnatural Power Corrupts Both The Heart And The Understanding.

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.

Superstition Is The Religion Of Feeble Minds.

Tyrants Seldom Want Pretexts.

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

Oppressive Governments

England And Ireland May Flourish Together. The World Is Large Enough For Both Of Us. Let It Be Our Care Not To Make Ourselves Too Little For It.

Frugality Is Founded On The Principal That All Riches Have Limits.

Parliament Is A Deliberate Assembly Of One Nation, With One Interest, That Of The Whole; Where, Not Local Purpose, Not Local Prejudices Ought To Guide But The General Good, Resulting From The General Reason Of The Whole.

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

A Nation Is Not Conquered Which Is Perpetually To Be Conquered.

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

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.

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

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