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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.

-Edmund Burke

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It Is The Love

Edmund Burke

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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.

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

Men Are Qualified For Civil Liberty In Exact Proportion To Their Disposition To Put Moral Chains Upon Their Own Appetites.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Fellowship In Treason Is A Bad Ground Of Confidence.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The Traveller Has Reached The End Of The Journey!

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

A Speculative Despair Is Unpardonable Where It Our Duty To Act.

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

Flattery Corrupts Both The Receiver And The Giver.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

The Great Difference Between The Real Leader And The Pretender Is That The One Sees Into The Future, While The Other Regards Only The Present; The One Lives By The Day, And Acts Upon Expediency; The Other Acts On Enduring Principles And For The Immortality.

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.

Man Is An Animal That Cooks His Victuals.

Where Mystery Begins Religion Ends.

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

Those Who Attempt To Level Never Equalize

Bad Laws Are The Worst Sort Of Tyranny.

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

The 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

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

Guilt Was Never A Rational Thing; It Distorts All The Faculties Of The Human Mind, It Perverts Them, It Leaves A Man No Longer In The Free Use Of His Reason, It Puts Him Into Confusion.

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

Education Is A Nation's Cheapest Defence

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

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

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

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.

The Only Training For The Heroic Is The Mundane.

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

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

Fraud Is The Ready Minister Of Injustice.

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.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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

Responsibility Prevents Crimes.

Pleasure Of Every Kind Quickly Satisfies.

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

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

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.

We Set Ourselves To Bite The Hand That Feeds Us.

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.

A Coward's Courage Is In His Tongue.

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

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 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.

The Yielding Of The Weak Is The Concession To Fear.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Oppressive Governments

One Source Of The Sublime Is Infinity.

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

Nothing Ought To Be More Weighed Than The Nature Of Books Recommended By Public Authority. So Recommended, They Soon Form The Character Of The Age.

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.

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.

Futurity Is The Great Concern Of Mankind.

Whenever Government Abandons Law, It Proclaims Anarchy.

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

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.

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.

Humanity Cannot Be Degraded By Humiliation.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Good Order Is The Foundation Of All Things.

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

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

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 Truly Sublime Is Always Easy, And Always Natural.

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

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

In 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.

Liberty, Without Wisdom, Is License.

Ambition Can Creep As Well As Soar.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Arrogance Of Youth

Liberty Does Not Exist In The Absence Of Morality.

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

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

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.

The Ocean Is An Object Of No Small Terror.

Whatever Each Man Can Separately Do, Without Trespassing Upon Others, He Has A Right To Do For Himself; And He Has A Right To A Fair Portion Of All Which Society, With All It Combinations Of Skill And Force, Can Do In His Favor. In This Partnership All Men Have Equal Rights; But Not To Equal Things.

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

Education Is The Cheap Defense Of Nations.

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

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.

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

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.

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

All Government Is Founded On Compromise And Banter.

In Doing Good, We Are Generally Cold, And Languid, And Sluggish; And Of All Things Afraid Of Being Too Much In The Right. But Theworks Of Malice And Injustice Are Quite In Another Style. They Are Finished With A Bold, Masterly Hand; Touched As They Are With The Spirit Of Those Vehement Passions That Call Forth All Our Energies, Whenever We Oppress And Persecute.

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

Conquering Fear

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

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

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

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.

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.

The Tyranny Of A Multitude Is A Multiplied Tyranny.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Falsehood Is A Perennial Spring.

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

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.

The Tribunal Of Conscience Exists Independent Of Edicts And Decrees.

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

Over-taxation Cost England Her Colonies Of North America.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Religion Is Among The Most Powerful Causes Of Enthusiasm.

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.

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

Laws, Like Houses, Lean On One Another.

Circumspection And Caution Are Part Of Wisdom.

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.

War Never Leaves Where It Found A Nation.

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

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

Economy Is A Distributive Virtue, And Consists Not In Saving But In Selection.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Spain: A Whale Stranded Upon The Coast Of Europe.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Broken Promises

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.

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

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.

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?

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

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Stefano Langone

Christopher Columbus

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