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In On Summer They Have Done Their Business... They Have Completely Pulled Down To The Ground Their Monarchy, Their Church, Their Nobility, Their Law, Their Revenue, Their Army, Their Navy, Their Commerce, Their Arts, And Their Manufactures... Destroyed All Balances And Counterpoises Which Serve To Fix A State And Give It Steady Direction, And Then They Melted Down The Whole Into One Incongrous Mass Of Mob And Democracy... The People, Along With Their Political Servitude, Have Thrown Off The Yoke Of Law And Morals.

-Edmund Burke

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In On Summer They

Edmund Burke

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In On Summer They Have Done Their Business... They Have Completely Pulled Down To The Ground Their Monarchy, Their Church, Their Nobility, Their Law, Their Revenue, Their Army, Their Navy, Their Commerce, Their Arts, And Their Manufactures... Destroyed All Balances And Counterpoises Which Serve To Fix A State And Give It Steady Direction, And Then They Melted Down The Whole Into One Incongrous Mass Of Mob And Democracy... The People, Along With Their Political Servitude, Have Thrown Off The Yoke Of Law And Morals.

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The March Of The Human Mind Is Slow.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Falsehood Is A Perennial Spring.

There Was An Ancient Roman Lawyer, Of Great Fame In The History Of Roman Jurisprudence, Whom They Called Cui Bono, From His Having First Introduced Into Judicial Proceedings The Argument, "what End Or Object Could The Party Have Had In The Act With Which He Is Accused."

Ambition Can Creep As Well As Soar.

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

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

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

Party Is A Body Of Men United, For Promoting By Their Joint Endeavours The National Interest, Upon Some Particular Principle In Which They Are All Agreed.

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.

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

The Tribunal Of Conscience Exists Independent Of Edicts And Decrees.

The Wisdom Of Our Ancestors.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Government Welfare

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

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

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.

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

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

Sallust Is Indisputably One Of The Best Historians Among The Romans, Both For The Purity Of His Language And The Elegance Of His Style.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

No Government Ought To Exist For The Purpose Of Checking The Prosperity Of Its People Or To Allow Such A Principle In Its Policy.

An Entire Life Of Solitude Contradicts The Purpose Of Our Being, Since Death Itself Is Scarcely An Idea Of More Terror.

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.

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.

What Shadows We Are, And What Shadows We Pursue!

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

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 .

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

If We Command Our Wealth, We Shall Be Rich And Free; If Our Wealth Commands Us, We Are Poor Indeed.

Greatest Wealth

Wars Are Just To Those To Whom They Are Necessary.

The Same Sun Which Gilds All Nature, And Exhilarates The Whole Creation, Does Not Shine Upon Disappointed Ambition.

Somebody Has Said, That A King May Make A Nobleman But He Cannot Make A Gentleman.

Circumspection And Caution Are Part Of Wisdom.

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

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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

Early And Provident Fear Is The Mother Of Safety.

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

I Cannot Help Concurring With The Opinion That An Absolute Democracy, No More Than Absolute Monarchy, Is To Be Reckoned Among The Legitimate Forms Of Government.

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.

Prudence Is A Quality Incompatible With Vice, And Can Never Be Effectively Enlisted In Its Cause.

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

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

What Ever Disunites Man From God, Also Disunites Man From Man.

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

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.

An Extreme Rigor Is Sure To Arm Everything Against It.

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

Applause Is The Spur Of Noble Minds, The End And Aim Of Weak Ones.

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

Politics And The Pulpit Are Terms That Have Little Agreement.

But The Age Of Chivalry Is Gone. That Of Sophisters, Economists, And Calculators Has Succeeded; And The Glory Of Europe Is Extinguished Forever.

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.

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.

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

Liberty Must Be Limited In Order To Be Possessed.

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.

Nothing Is So Rash As Fear; And The Counsels Of Pusillanimity Very Rarely Put Off, Whilst They Are Always Sure To Aggravate, The Evils From Which They Would Fly.

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

This Sort Of People Are So Taken Up With Their Theories About The Rights Of Man That They Have Totally Forgotten His Nature.

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

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.

The Traveller Has Reached The End Of The Journey!

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

It Is Hard To Say Whether Doctors Of Law Or Divinity Have Made The Greater Advances In The Lucrative Business Of Mystery.

The Science Of Constructing A Commonwealth Or Renovating It, Or Reforming It, Is...not To Be Taught A Priori...that Which In The First Instance Is Prejudicial May Be Excellent In Its Remoter Operation, And Its Excellence May Rise Even From The Ill Effects It Produces In The Beginning. The Reverse Also Happens; And Very Plausible Schemes, With Very Pleasing Commencements, Have Often Shameful And Lamentable Conclusions.

Great Men Are The Guideposts And Landmarks In The State.

Never, No Never, Did Nature Say One Thing, And Wisdom Another.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Thank God, Men That Art Greatly Guilty Are Never Wise.

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

He That Borrows The Aid Of An Equal Understanding Doubles His Own; He That Uses That Of A Superior Elevates His Own To The Stature Of That He Contemplates.

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.

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.

To Prove That The Americans Ought Not To Be Free, We Are Obliged To Deprecate The Value Of Freedom Itself.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

To Be Attached To The Subdivision, To Love The Little Platoon We Belong To In Society, Is The First Principle (the Germ As It Were) Of Public Affections. It Is The First Link In The Series By Which We Proceed Toward A Love To Our Country And To Mankind. The Interest Of That Portion Of Social Arrangement Is A Trust In The Hands Of All Those Who Compose It; And As None But Bad Men Would Justify It In Abuse, None But Traitors Would Barter It Away For Their Own Personal Advantage.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

It Is From This Absolute Indifference And Tranquillity Of The Mind, That Mathematical Speculations Derive Some Of The Most Considerable Advantages; Because There Is Nothing To Interest The Imagination; Because The Judgment Sits Free And Unbiased To Examine The Point. All Proportions, Every Arrangement Of Quantity, Is Alike To The Understanding, Because The Same Truths Result To It From All; From Greater From Lesser, From Equality And Inequality.

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

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?

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

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 Truly Sublime Is Always Easy, And Always Natural.

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

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

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

Oppressive Governments

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Under The Pressure Of The Cares And Sorrows Of Our Mortal Condition, Men Have At All Times, And In All Countries, Called In Some Physical Aid To Their Moral Consolations - Wine, Beer, Opium, Brandy, Or Tobacco.

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

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

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.

The Ocean Is An Object Of No Small Terror.

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.

Turn Over A New Leaf.

Fellowship In Treason Is A Bad Ground Of Confidence.

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

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

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.

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

Reflect How You Are To Govern A People Who Think They Ought To Be Free, And Think They Are Not. Your Scheme Yields No Revenue; It Yields Nothing But Discontent, Disorder, Disobedience; And Such Is The State Of America, That After Wading Through Up To Your Eyes In Blood, You Could Only End Up Where You Begun; That Is, To Tax Where No Revenue Is To Be Found... All Is Confusion Beyond It.

The Only Infallible Criterion Of Wisdom To Vulgar Minds - Success.

Custom Reconciles Us To Everything.

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

The Esteem Of Wise And Good Men Is The Greatest Of All Temporal Encouragements To Virtue; And It Is A Mark Of An Abandoned Spirit To Have No Regard To It.

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

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

Humanity Cannot Be Degraded By Humiliation.

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

Where Mystery Begins Religion Ends.

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

Though Ugliness Be The Opposite Of Beauty, It Is Not The Opposite To Proportion And Fitness; For It Is Possible That A Thing May Be Very Ugly With Any Proportions, And With A Perfect Fitness For Any Use.

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

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

The More Accurately We Search Into The Human Mind, The Stronger Traces We Everywhere Find Of His Wisdom Who Made It.

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

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.

That Cardinal Virtue, Temperance.

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.

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.

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.

Responsibility Prevents Crimes.

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

Hypocrisy Is No Cheap Vice; Nor Can Our Natural Temper Be Masked For Many Years Together.

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

Education Is A Nation's Cheapest Defence

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.

That Great Chain Of Causes, Which, Linking One To Another, Even To The Throne Of God Himself, Can Never Be Unraveled By Any Industry Of Ours.

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

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

A Great Empire And Little Minds Go Ill Together.

Whenever Government Abandons Law, It Proclaims Anarchy.

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

The Greater The Power, The More Dangerous The Abuse.

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.

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.

For My Part, I Am Convinced That The Method Of Teaching Which Approaches Most Nearly To The Method Of Investigation Is Incomparably The Best; Since, Not Content With Serving Up A Few Barren And Lifeless Truths, It Leads To The Stock On Which They Grew.

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

Religion Is Among The Most Powerful Causes Of Enthusiasm.

But A Good Patriot, And A True Politician, Always Considers How He Shall Make The Most Of The Existing Materials Of His Country. A Disposition, To Preserve, And An Ability To Improve, Taken Together, Would Be My Standard Of A Statesman. Everything Else Is Vulgar In The Conception, Perilous In The Execution.

Free Trade Is Not Based On Utility But On Justice.

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

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

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

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.

It Is For The Most Part In Our Skill In Manners, And In The Observations Of Time And Place And Of Decency In General, That What Is Called Taste By Way Of Distinction Consists; And Which Is In Reality No Other Than A More Refined Judgment.

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

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

We Set Ourselves To Bite The Hand That Feeds Us.

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

Among A People Generally Corrupt Liberty Cannot Long Exist.

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

Public Calamity Is A Mighty Leveller.

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.

The Cause Of A Wrong Taste Is A Defect Of Judgment.

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