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

-Edmund Burke

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It Is A General

Edmund Burke

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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

To Speak Of Atrocious Crime In Mild Language Is Treason To Virtue.

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.

Evil Succeeds When Good Men Do Nothing

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

Futurity Is The Great Concern Of Mankind.

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.

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.

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.

Great Men Are Never Sufficiently Shown But In Struggles.

There Are Some Men Formed With Feelings So Blunt That They Can Hardly Be Said To Be Awake During The Whole Course Of Their Lives.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

Evil Prevails When Good Men Fail To Act.

One Source Of The Sublime Is Infinity.

He That Struggles With Us Strengthens Our Nerves, And Sharpens Our Skill. Our Antagonist Is Our Helper.

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

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.

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

I Cannot Stand Forward, And Give Praise Or Blame To Any Thing Which Relates To Human Actions, And Human Concerns, On A Simple View Of The Subject As It Stands Stripped Of Every Relation, In All The Nakedness And Solitude Of Metaphysical Abstraction. Circumstances (which With Some Gentlemen Pass For Nothing) Give In Reality To Every Political Principle Its Distinguishing Colour, And Discriminating Effect. The Circumstances Are What Render Every Civil And Political Scheme Beneficial Or Noxious To Mankind.

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.

There Are Circumstances In Which Despair Does Not Imply Inactivity.

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.

Liberty Must Be Limited In Order To Be Possessed.

Pleasure Of Every Kind Quickly Satisfies.

You Can Never Plan The Future By The Past.

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

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.

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

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.

Politics And The Pulpit Are Terms That Have Little Agreement.

A Very Great Part Of The Mischiefs That Vex The World Arises From Words.

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

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.

Beauty Is The Promise Of Happiness.

To Innovate Is Not To Reform.

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

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

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

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

Conquering Fear

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

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.

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.

Man Is An Animal That Cooks His Victuals.

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

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

Where Mystery Begins Religion Ends.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Facts Are To The Mind What Food Is To The Body.

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

There Is A Time When The Hoary Head Of Inveterate Abuse Will Neither Draw Reverence Nor Obtain Protection.

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.

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.

Falsehood Is A Perennial Spring.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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 The Most To The Perpetuation Of Society Itself.

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.

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

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.

The Truly Sublime Is Always Easy, And Always Natural.

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

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

Who Can Know Her, And Himself, And Entertain Much Hope? Who Can See And Know Such A Creature, And Not Love Her To Distraction? She Has All The Softness That Does Not Imply Weakness... She Is Not Made To Be The Admiration Of Everybody, But The Happiness Of One.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Education Is The Cheap Defense Of Nations.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Manners Are Of More Importance Than Laws. Manners Are What Vex Or Soothe, Corrupt Or Purify, Exalt Or Debase, Barbarize Or Refine Us, By A Constant, Steady, Uniform, Insensible Operation, Like That Of The Air We Breathe.

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

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.

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

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

Religion Is Among The Most Powerful Causes Of Enthusiasm.

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.

Genuine Simplicity Of Heart Is A Healing And Cementing Principle.

History Is A Pact Between The Dead, The Living, And The Yet Unborn.

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

Because Half A Dozen Grasshoppers Under A Fern Make The Field Ring With Their Importunate Chink, Whilst Thousands Of Great Cattle, Reposed Beneath The Shadow Of The British Oak, Chew The Cud And Are Silent, Pray, To Not Imagine That Those Who Make The Noise Are The Only Inhabitants Of The Field; That, Of Course, They Are Many In Number; Or That, After All, They Are Other Than The Little, Shriveled, Meagre, Hopping, Though Loud And Troublesome Insects Of The Hour.

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

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

Abstract Liberty, Like Other Mere Abstractions, Is Not To Be Found.

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.

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

Nothing Less Will Content Me, Than Wholeamerica.

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

Oppressive Governments

I Do Not Know How To Wish Success To Those Whose Victory Is To Separate From Us A Large And Noble Part Of Our Empire. Still Less Do I Wish Success To Injustice, Oppression And Absurdity.

I Set Out With A Perfect Distrust Of My Own Abilities, A Total Renunciation Of Every Speculation Of My Own, And With A Profound Reverence For The Wisdom Of Our Ancestors, Who Have Left Us The Inheritance Of So Happy A Constitution And So Flourishing An Empire, And, What Is A Thousand Times More Valuable, The Treasury Of The Maxims And Principles Which Formed The One And Obtained The Other.

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

Government Is The Exercise Of All The Great Qualities Of The Human Mind.

Education Is A Nation's Cheapest Defence

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

Flattery Corrupts Both The Receiver And The Giver.

The Greater The Power, The More Dangerous The Abuse.

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

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

Equity Money Is Dynamic And Debt Money Is Static.

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

A Great Empire And Little Minds Go Ill Together.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 March Of The Human Mind Is Slow.

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

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.

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.

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

The Only Kind Of Sublimity Which A Painter Or Sculptor Should Aim At Is To Express By Certain Proportions And Positions Of Limbs And Features That Strength And Dignity Of Mind, And Vigor And Activity Of Body, Which Enables Men To Conceive And Execute Great Actions.

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

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

Government Welfare

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.

Beauty In Distress Is Much The Most Affecting Beauty.

All Virtue Which Is Impracticable Is Spurious.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Magnanimity In Politics Is Not Seldom The Truest Wisdom; And A Great Empire And Little Minds Go Ill Together.

That Cardinal Virtue, Temperance.

Water And Oil, Simply Considered, Are Capable Of Giving Some Pleasure To The Taste. Water, When Simple, Is Insipid, Inodorous, Colorless, And Smooth; It Is Found, When Not Cold, To Be A Great Resolver Of Spasms, And Lubricator Of The Fibres; This Power It Probably Owes To Its Smoothness.

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

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

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.

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

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

Turn Over A New Leaf.

A Coward's Courage Is In His Tongue.

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

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.

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.

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

Nothing Is So Fatal To Religion As Indifference.

Power, In Whatever Hands, Is Rarely Guilty Of Too Strict Limitations On Itself.

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.

The Traveller Has Reached The End Of The Journey!

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

Whenever Government Abandons Law, It Proclaims Anarchy.

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.

The Method Of Teaching Which Approaches Most Nearly To The Method Of Investigation Is Incomparably The Best.

There Is A Boundary To Men's Passions When They Act From Feelings; But None When They Are Under The Influence Of Imagination.

Politics Ought To Be Adjusted Not To Human Reasonings But To Human Nature, Of Which Reason Is But A Part And By No Means The Greatest Part.

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

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.

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

Tyrants Seldom Want Pretexts.

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.

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

We Set Ourselves To Bite The Hand That Feeds Us.

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.

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