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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.

-Edmund Burke

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I Do Not Hesitate

Edmund Burke

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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.

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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.

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

Wars Are Just To Those To Whom They Are Necessary.

I Take Toleration To Be A Part Of Religion. I Do Not Know Which I Would Sacrifice; I Would Keep Them Both: It Is Not Necessary That I Should Sacrifice Either.

In Effect, To Follow, Not To Force The Public Inclination; To Give A Direction, A Form, A Technical Dress, And A Specific Sanction, To The General Sense Of The Community, Is The True End Of Legislature.

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.

Oppression Makes Wise Men Mad; But The Distemper Is Still The Madness Of The Wise, Which Is Better Than The Sobriety Of Fools.

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

Beauty Is The Promise Of Happiness.

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

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

A Definition May Be Very Exact, And Yet Go But A Very Little Way Towards Informing Us Of The Nature Of The Thing Defined.

Public Calamity Is A Mighty Leveller.

It Looks To Me To Be Narrow And Pedantic To Apply The Ordinary Ideas Of Criminal Justice To This Great Public Contest. I Do Not Know The Method Of Drawing Up An Indictment Against A Whole People.

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

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.

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.

Fellowship In Treason Is A Bad Ground Of Confidence.

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

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

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.

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

An Extreme Rigor Is Sure To Arm Everything Against It.

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

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

Arrogance Of Youth

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

We Must Not Always Judge Of The Generality Of The Opinion By The Noise Of The Acclamation.

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.

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.

You Had That Action And Counteraction Which, In The Natural And In The Political World, From The Reciprocal Struggle Of Discordant Powers Draws Out The Harmony Of The Universe.

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 Distinguishing Part Of Our Constitution Is Its Liberty. To Preserve That Liberty Inviolate, Is The Peculiar Duty And Proper Trust Of A Member Of The House Of Commons. But The Liberty, The Only Liberty I Mean, Is A Liberty Connected With Order, And That Not Only Exists With Order And Virtue, But Cannot Exist At All Without Them. It Inheres In Good And Steady Government, As In Its Substance And Vital Principle.

All Men Have Equal Rights, But Not To Equal Things.

The Parties Are The Gamesters; But Government Keeps The Table, And Is Sure To Be The Winner In The End.

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.

Expense, And Great Expense, May Be An Essential Part In True Economy. If Parsimony Were To Be Considered As One Of The Kinds Of That Virtue, There Is, However, Another And A Higher Economy. Economy Is A Distinctive Virtue, And Consists Not In Saving, But In Selection.

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.

The Ocean Is An Object Of No Small Terror.

The Unbought Grace Of Life, The Cheap Defence Of Nations, The Nurse Of Manly Sentiment And Heroic Enterprise, Is Gone!

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

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.

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

Against Religion

When Ancient Opinions And Rules Of Life Are Taken Away, The Loss Cannot Possibly Be Estimated. From That Moment, We Have No Compass To Govern Us, Nor Can We Know Distinctly To What Port To Steer.

Nobility Is A Graceful Ornament To The Civil Order. It Is The Corinthian Capital Of Polished Society.

Custom Reconciles Us To Everything.

All Persons Possessing Any Portion Of Power Ought To Be Strongly And Awfully Impressed With An Idea That They Act In Trust, And That They Are To Account For Their Conduct In That Trust To The One Great Master, Author, And Founder Of Society.

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

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 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 Cause Of A Wrong Taste Is A Defect Of Judgment.

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

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

All Those Instances To Be Found In History, Whether Real Or Fabulous, Of A Doubtful Public Spirit, At Which Morality Is Perplexed, Reason Is Staggered, And From Which Affrighted Nature Recoils, Are Their Chosen And Almost Sole Examples For The Instruction Of Their Youth.

The Concessions Of The Weak Are The Concessions Of Fear.

Ambition Can Creep As Well As Soar.

Government Is A Contrivance Of Human Wisdom To Provide For Human Wants.

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

Free Trade Is Not Based On Utility But On Justice.

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.

When You Fear Something, Learn As Much About It As You Can. Knowledge Conquers Fear.

Conquering Fear

Great Men Are The Guideposts And Landmarks In The State.

Beauty In Distress Is Much The Most Affecting Beauty.

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

The March Of The Human Mind Is Slow.

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.

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.

Knowledge Of Those Unalterable Relations Which Providence Has Ordained That Every Thing Should Bear To Every Other...to These We Should Conform In Good Earnest; And Not Think To Force Nature, And The Whole Order Of Her System, By A Compliance With Our Pride, And Folly, To Conform To Our Artificial Regulations.

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.

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.

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

Society Is Indeed A Contract. Subordinate Contracts For Objects Of Mere Occasional Interest May Be Dissolved At Pleasure - But The State Ought Not To Be Considered As Nothing Better Than A Partnership Agreement In A Trade Of Pepper And Coffee, Calico, Or Tobacco, Or Some Other Such Low Concern, To Be Taken Up For A Little Temporary Interest, And To Be Dissolved By The Fancy Of The Parties. It Is To Be Looked On With Other Reverence, Because It Is Not A Partnership In Things Subservient Only To The Gross Animal Existence Of A Temporary And Perishable Nature.

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.

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.

It Is By Sympathy We Enter Into The Concerns Of Others, That We Are Moved As They Are Moved, And Are Never Suffered To Be Indifferent Spectators Of Almost Anything Which Men Can Do Or Suffer. For Sympathy May Be Considered As A Sort Of Substitution, By Which We Are Put Into The Place Of Another Man, And Affected In Many Respects As He Is Affected.

Rage And Frenzy Will Pull Down More In Half An Hour Than Prudence, Deliberation, And Foresight Can Build Up In A Hundred Years.

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.

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

Superstition Is The Religion Of Feeble Minds.

Good Company, Lively Conversation, And The Endearments Of Friendship Fill The Mind With Great Pleasure.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Nothing Less Will Content Me, Than Wholeamerica.

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.

It Is Very Rare, Indeed, For Men To Be Wrong In Their Feelings Concerning Public Misconduct; As Rare To Be Right In Their Speculations Upon The Cause Of It. I Have Constantly Observed That The Generality Of People Are Fifty Years, At Least, Behind In Their Politics.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

I Consider How Little Man Is, Yet, In His Own Mind, How Great. He Is Lord And Master Of All Things, Yet Scarce Can Command Anything.

A People Who Are Still, As It Were, But In The Gristle, And Not Yet Hardened Into The Bone Of Manhood.

All Government, Indeed Every Human Benefit And Enjoyment, Every Virtue, And Every Prudent Act, Is Founded On Compromise And Barter.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The Great Must Submit To The Dominion Of Prudence And Of Virtue, Or None Will Long Submit To The Dominion Of The Great.

Nothing Is So Fatal To Religion As Indifference.

The True Way To Mourn The Dead Is To Take Care Of The Living Who Belong To Them.

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

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.

If Any Ask Me What A Free Government Is, I Answer, That, For Any Practical Purpose, It Is What The People Think So,and That They, And Not I, Are The Natural, Lawful, And Competent Judges Of This Matter.

Man Is By His Constitution A Religious Animal.

To Tax And To Please, No More Than To Love And To Be Wise, Is Not Given To Men.

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

Contempt Is Not A Thing To Be Despised.

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

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.

Circumstances Give In Reality To Every Political Principle Its Distinguishing Color And Discriminating Effect. The Circumstances Are What Render Every Civil And Political Scheme Beneficial Or Noxious To Mankind.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Oppressive Governments

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.

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

Flattery Is No More Than What Raises In A Man's Mind An Idea Of A Preference Which He Has Not.

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

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.

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

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.

All Virtue Which Is Impracticable Is Spurious.

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.

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.

Pleasure Of Every Kind Quickly Satisfies.

To Give Freedom Is Still More Easy. It Is Not Necessary To Guide; It Only Requires To Let Go The Rein. But To Form A Free Government; That Is, To Temper Together These Opposite Elements Of Liberty And Restraint In One Work, Requires Much Thought, Deep Reflection, A Sagacious, Powerful, And Combining Mind.

By The Disposition Of A Stupendous Wisdom, Moulding Together The Great Mysterious Incorporation Of The Human Race, The Whole, At One Time, Is Never Old, Or Middle-aged, Or Young; But, In A Condition Of Unchangeable Constancy, Moves On Through The Varied Tenor Of Perpetual Decay, Fall, Renovation, And Progression.

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 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.

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.

Liberty Does Not Exist In The Absence Of Morality.

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

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.

We Must Soften Into A Credulity Below The Milkiness Of Infancy To Think All Men Virtuous. We Must Be Tainted With A Malignity Truly Diabolical, To Believe All The World To Be Equally Wicked And Corrupt.

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.

Our Patience Will Achieve More Than Our Force.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

The Unbought Grace Of Life, The Cheap Defence Of Nations, The Nurse Of Manly Sentiment And Heroic Enterprise Isgone! It Isgone, That Sensibility Of Principle, That Chastity Of Honour, Which Felt A Stain Like A Wound, Which Ennobled Whatever It Touched, And Under Which Vice Itself Lost Half Its Evil, By Losing All Its Grossness.

There Is America, Which At This Day Serves For Little More Than To Amuse You With Stories Of Savage Men And Uncouth Manners, Yet Shall, Before You Taste Of Death, Show Itself Equal To The Whole Of That Commerce Which Now Attracts The Envy Of The World.

We Are In A War Of A Peculiar Nature. It Is Not With An Ordinary Community, Which Is Hostile Or Friendly As Passion Or As Interest May Veer About: Not With A State Which Makes War Through Wantonness, And Abandons It Through Lassitude. We Are At War With A System, Which By Its Essence, Is Inimical To All Other Governments, And Which Makes Peace Or War, As Peace And War May Best Contribute To Their Subversion. It Is With An Armed Doctrine That We Are At War. It Has, By Its Essence, A Faction Of Opinion, And Of Interest, And Of Enthusiasm, In Every Country.

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.

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.

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

Law And Arbitrary Power Are At Eternal Enmity.

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

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.

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.

Spain: A Whale Stranded Upon The Coast Of Europe.

The Greater The Power, The More Dangerous The Abuse.

When A Great Man Has Some One Object In View To Be Achieved In A Given Time, It May Be Absolutely Necessary For Him To Walk Out Of All The Common Roads.

The Most Favourable Laws Can Do Very Little Towards The Happiness Of People When The Disposition Of The Ruling Power Is Adverse To Them.

To Make Us Love Our Country, Our Country Ought To Be Lovely.

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

Evil Prevails When Good Men Fail To Act.

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

Early And Provident Fear Is The Mother Of Safety.

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

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

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

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

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

Society Is Indeed A Contract. It Is A Partnership In All Science; A Partnership In All Art; A Partnership In Every Virtue, And In All Perfection. As The Ends Of Such A Partnership Cannot Be Obtained In Many Generations, It Becomes A Partnership Not Only Between Those Who Are Living, But Between Those Who Are Living, Those Who Are Dead, And Those Who Are To Be Born.

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.

You Can Never Plan The Future By The Past.

Liberty Must Be Limited In Order To Be Possessed.

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

I Know Of Nothing Sublime Which Is Not Some Modification Of Power.

Facts Are To The Mind What Food Is To The Body. On The Due Digestion Of The Former Depend The Strength And Wisdom Of The One, Just As Vigor And Health Depend On The Other. The Wisest In Council, The Ablest In Debate, And The Most Agreeable Companion In The Commerce Of Human Life, Is That Man Who Has Assimilated To His Understanding The Greatest Number Of Facts.

Never Despair, But If You Do, Work On In Despair.

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

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.

Society Is Indeed A Contract. ... It Is A Partnership In All Science; A Partnership In All Art; A Partnership In Every Virtue, And In All Perfection.

Where Mystery Begins Religion Ends.

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

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.

Adversity Is A Severe Instructor, Set Over Us By One Who Knows Us Better Than We Do Ourselves.

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

The Grave Is A Common Treasury, To Which We Must All Be Taken.

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

Government Welfare

The Moment You Abate Anything From The Full Rights Of Men To Each Govern Himself, And Suffer Any Artificial Positive Limitation Upon Those Rights, From That Moment The Whole Organization Of Government Becomes A Consideration Of Convenience.

Some Degree Of Novelty Must Be One Of The Materials In Almost Every Instrument Which Works Upon The Mind; And Curiosity Blends Itself, More Or Less, With All Our Pleasures.

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.

Religion Is For The Man In Humble Life, And To Raise His Nature, And To Put Him In Mind Of A State In Which The Privileges Of Opulence Will Cease, When He Will Be Equal By Nature, And May Be More Than Equal By Virtue.

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

The Effect Of Liberty To Individuals Is That They May Do What They Please: We Ought To See What It Will Please Them To Do, Before We Risk Congratulations.

Congratulations

The Hottest Fires In Hell Are Reserved For Those Who Remain Neutral In Times Of Moral Crisis.

Prudence Is Not Only The First In Rank Of The Virtues Political And Moral, But She Is The Director And Regulator, The Standard Of Them All.

Evil Succeeds When Good Men Do Nothing

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