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

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

Understanding the Quote: "man acts from adequate motives relative to his interest, and not on..."

This quote by Edmund Burke reflects deeply on the theme of men. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Men, Adequate, Metaphysical, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Edmund Burke interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke is celebrated for insightful thoughts on men and adequate. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Men
Adequate
Metaphysical
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Early And Provident Fear Is The Mother Of Safety.
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A Very Great Part Of The Mischiefs That Vex The World Arises From Words.
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Magnanimity In Politics Is Not Seldom The Truest Wisdom; And A Great Empire And Little Minds Go Ill Together.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Hottest Fires In Hell Are Reserved For Those Who Remain Neutral In Times Of Moral Crisis.
Motivational
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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.
Hope
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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.
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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.
Passion
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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.
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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.
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Men
Understanding
Nobody Made A Greater Mistake Than He Who Did Nothing Because He Could Do Only A Little.
Life
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A Nation Is Not Conquered Which Is Perpetually To Be Conquered.
Nations
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.
Pain
Ideas
Giving
My Vigour Relents. I Pardon Something To The Spirit Of Liberty.
Liberty
Spirit
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I Do Ride Contend Against The Advantages Of Distrust. In The World We Live In, It Is But Too Necessary. Some Of Old Called It The Very Sinews Of Discretion.
World
Advantage
Distrust
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.
Inspirational
Pain
Flower
Pleasure Of Every Kind Quickly Satisfies.
Kind
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A Kind Providence Has Placed In Our Breasts A Hatred Of The Unjust And Cruel, In Order That We May Preserve Ourselves From Cruelty And Injustice. They Who Bear Cruelty, Are Accomplices In It. The Pretended Gentleness Which Excludes That Charitable Rancour, Produces An Indifference Which Is Half An Approbation. They Never Will Love Where They Ought To Love, Who Do Not Hate Where They Ought To Hate.
Hate
Order
Hatred
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.
Advice
Understanding
Levels
No Sound Ought To Be Heard In The Church But The Healing Voice Of Christian Charity.
Christian
Healing
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The Writers Against Religion, Whilst They Oppose Every System, Are Wisely Careful Never To Set Up Any Of Their Own.
Religion
Careful
Against Religion
All Virtue Which Is Impracticable Is Spurious.
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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 .
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Law
Branches
Evil Prevails When Good Men Fail To Act.
Men
Evil
Good Man
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.
Country
Men
May
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.
Frustration
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Thinking
Men Are As Much Blinded By The Extremes Of Misery As By The Extremes Of Prosperity.
Men
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The Only Infallible Criterion Of Wisdom To Vulgar Minds - Success.
Success
Mind
Criteria
Thank God, Men That Art Greatly Guilty Are Never Wise.
Wise
Wisdom
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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.
Eye
Thinking
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Fellowship In Treason Is A Bad Ground Of Confidence.
Fellowship
Treason
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.
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Greater Mischief Happens Often From Folly, Meanness, And Vanity Than From The Greater Sins Of Avarice And Ambition.
Ambition
Vanity
Sin
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.
Opposites
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Religion Is The Basis Of Civil Society, And The Source Of All Good And Of All Comfort.
Religion
Comfort
Source
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.
Sacrifice
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In Such A Strait The Wisest May Well Be Perplexed And The Boldest Staggered.
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A Speculative Despair Is Unpardonable Where It Our Duty To Act.
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The Truly Sublime Is Always Easy, And Always Natural.
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Style
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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.
Practice
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Flattery Is No More Than What Raises In A Man's Mind An Idea Of A Preference Which He Has Not.
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In History, A Great Volume Is Unrolled For Our Instruction, Drawing The Materials Of Future Wisdom From The Past Errors And Infirmities Of Mankind.
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Fiction Lags After Truth, Invention Is Unfruitful, And Imagination Cold And Barren.
Truth
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One Source Of The Sublime Is Infinity.
Sublime
Infinity
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The Perfection Of Conversation Is Not To Play A Regular Sonata, But, Like The Aeolian Harp, To Await The Inspiration Of The Passing Breeze.
Inspiration
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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.
Country
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When Any Work Seems To Have Required Immense Force And Labor To Effect It, The Idea Is Grand.
Ideas
Force
Labor
For There Is In Mankind An Unfortunate Propensity To Make Themselves, Their Views And Their Works, The Measure Of Excellence In Every Thing Whatsoever
Views
Excellence
Mankind
Among Precautions Against Ambition, It May Not Be Amiss To Take Precautions Against Our Own. I Must Fairly Say, I Dread Our Own Power And Our Own Ambition: I Dread Our Being Too Much Dreaded.
Ambition
Power
May
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
Risk
Liberty
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.
Book
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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.
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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.
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Great Men Are The Guideposts And Landmarks In The State.
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Men
States
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.
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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.
Perfection
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World
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.
Real
Heart
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Woman Is Not Made To Be The Admiration Of Everybody , But The Happiness Of One.
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Admiration
Made
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.
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Politics
Your Representative Owes You, Not His Industry Only, But His Judgment; And He Betrays Instead Of Serving You If He Sacrifices It To Your Opinion.
Sacrifice
Government
Political
Flattery Corrupts Both The Receiver And The Giver.
Flattery
Giver
Flattering
This Sort Of People Are So Taken Up With Their Theories About The Rights Of Man That They Have Totally Forgotten His Nature.
Taken
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Rights
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.
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I Own That There Is A Haughtiness And Fierceness In Human Nature Which Will Cause Innumerable Broils, Place Men In What Situation You Please.
Men
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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.
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Never, No Never, Did Nature Say One Thing, And Wisdom Another.
Wisdom
Nature
Health
Humanity Cannot Be Degraded By Humiliation.
Humility
Humanity
Humiliation
Fraud Is The Ready Minister Of Injustice.
Injustice
Ministers
Fraud
In All Forms Of Government The People Is The True Legislator.
Government
People
Form
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.
Letting Go
Powerful
Reflection
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.
Reality
Skills
Way
They Defend Their Errors As If They Were Defending Their Inheritance.
Failure
Errors
Political
A People Who Are Still, As It Were, But In The Gristle, And Not Yet Hardened Into The Bone Of Manhood.
America
People
Bones
I Venture To Say No War Can Be Long Carried On Against The Will Of The People.
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Long
People
War Never Leaves Where It Found A Nation.
War
Found
Nations
All Writers On The Science Of Policy Are Agreed, And They Agree With Experience, That All Governments Must Frequently Infringe The Rules Of Justice To Support Themselves; That Truth Must Give Way To Dissimulation, Honesty To Convenience, And Humanity Itself To The Reigning Of Interest. The Whole Of This Mystery Of Iniquity Is Called The Reason Of State.
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Magnificence Is Likewise A Source Of The Sublime. A Great Profusion Of Things Which Are Splendid Or Valuable In Themselves Is Magnificent. The Starry Heaven, Though It Occurs So Very Frequently To Our View, Never Fails To Excite An Idea Of Grandeur.
Stars
Views
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It Is, Generally, In The Season Of Prosperity That Men Discover Their Real Temper, Principles, And Designs.
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Superstition Is The Religion Of Feeble Minds.
Inspirational
Mind
Religion
Mere Parsimony Is Not Economy. Expense, And Great Expense, May Be An Essential Part In True Economy.
Commitment
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May
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.
Teaching
Barren
Investigation
There Is A Courageous Wisdom; There Is Also A False, Reptile Prudence, The Result Not Of Caution But Of Fear.
Courage
Fear
Reptiles
In General The Languages Of Most Unpolished People Have A Great Force And Energy Of Expression; And This Is But Natural. Uncultivated People Are But Ordinary Observers Of Things, And Not Critical In Distinguishing Them; But, For That Reason, They Admire More, And Are More Affected With What They See, And Therefore Express Themselves In A Warmer And More Passionate Manner.
Expression
People
Energy
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.
Men
Confusion
Mind
A Good Parson Once Said That Where Mystery Begins Religion Ends. Cannot I Say, As Truly At Least, Of Human Laws, That Where Mystery Begins Justice Ends?
Law
Justice
Investing
The Most Favourable Laws Can Do Very Little Towards The Happiness Of People When The Disposition Of The Ruling Power Is Adverse To Them.
Inspirational
Law
People
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.
Pride
Thinking
Order
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.
Lying
Justice
Abortion
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.
Essentials
Saving
May
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.
Art
Partnership
Born
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.
Political
Directors
Firsts
The Objects Of A Financier Are, Then, To Secure An Ample Revenue; To Impose It With Judgment And Equality; To Employ It Economically; And, When Necessity Obliges Him To Make Use Of Credit, To Secure Its Foundations In That Instance, And For Ever, By The Clearness And Candor Of His Proceedings, The Exactness Of His Calculations, And The Solidity Of His Funds.
Money
Foundation
Use
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?
Wise
Business
Add
Toleration Is Good For All, Or It Is Good For None.
Compassion
Justice
Tolerance
They Never Will Love Where They Ought To Love, Who Do Not Hate Where They Ought To Hate.
Hate
Ought
Kings Will Be Tyrants From Policy, When Subjects Are Rebels From Principle.
Kings
Tyrants
Principles
You Can Never Plan The Future By The Past.
Time
Smart
Inspiration
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.
Wise
Hands
Oppression
It Is The Nature Of All Greatness Not To Be Exact.
Nature
Greatness
Statistics
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.
Religious
Cheer
Volcanoes
Better To Be Despised For Too Anxious Apprehensions Than Ruined By Too Confident A Security.
Independence
Psychological
Anxious
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.
Stars
Lying
Views
The Fate Of Good Men Who Refuse To Become Involved In Politics Is To Be Ruled By Evil Men.
Fate
Men
Evil
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.
Numbers
Imagination
Shadow
To Innovate Is Not To Reform.
Innovation
Reform
Reformation
We Must All Obey The Great Law Of Change. It Is The Most Powerful Law Of Nature.
Inspirational
Friendship
Change
People Must Be Taken As They Are, And We Should Never Try Make Them Or Ourselves Better By Quarreling With Them.
Relationship
Taken
People
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.
Evil
Anticipation
The Only Training For The Heroic Is The Mundane.
Training
Heroic
Mundane
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.
Power
Years
Relief
General Rebellions And Revolts Of A Whole People Never Were Encouraged Now Or At Any Time. They Are Always Provoked.
Freedom
People
Democracy
To Make Us Love Our Country, Our Country Ought To Be Lovely.
Love
Country
Patriotic
All The Forces Of Darkness Need To Succeed ... Is For The People To Do Nothing.
People
Darkness
Succeed
To Tax And To Please, No More Than To Love And To Be Wise, Is Not Given To Men.
Love
Wise
Business
Jacobinism Is The Revolt Of The Enterprising Talents Of A Country Against Its Property.
Country
Talent
Revolt
The Greatest Sin Is To Do Nothing Because You Can Only Do A Little.
Making A Difference
Charity
Littles
Nothing Turns Out To Be So Oppressive And Unjust As A Feeble Government.
Government
Unjust
Oppressive Governments
Applause Is The Spur Of Noble Minds, The End And Aim Of Weak Ones.
Encouraging
Encouragement
Mind
He Was Not Merely A Chip Off The Old Block, But The Old Block Itself.
Block
Tree
Chips
Men Have No Right To What Is Not Reasonable, And To What Is Not For Their Benefit.
Men
Benefits
Conservative
Politics And The Pulpit Are Terms That Have Little Agreement.
Agreement
Political
Politics
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.
Interesting
Ancestry
Weakness
Whenever Government Abandons Law, It Proclaims Anarchy.
Government
Law
Anarchy
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.
Summer
Art
Army
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
Numbers
Understanding
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.
Causes
Thrones
Mystery
The Wisdom Of Our Ancestors.
Wisdom
Ancestor
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.
Victory
Wish
Noble
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.
Wicked
Rivals
Ruins
Beauty Is The Promise Of Happiness.
Beauty
Promise
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.
Effort
Election
Proportion
We Must Soften Into A Credulity Below The Milkiness Of Infancy To Think All Men Virtuous. We Must Be Tainted With A Malignity Truly Diabolical, To Believe All The World To Be Equally Wicked And Corrupt.
Believe
Men
Thinking
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.
Order
Government
Liberty
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.
Believe
Men
Hands
The Men Of England,- The Men, I Mean, Of Light And Leading In England.
Leadership
Mean
Men
No Government Ought To Exist For The Purpose Of Checking The Prosperity Of Its People Or To Allow Such A Principle In Its Policy.
Government
People
Principles
When Ancient Opinions And Rules Of Life Are Taken Away, The Loss Cannot Possibly Be Estimated. From That Moment, We Have No Compass To Govern Us, Nor Can We Know Distinctly To What Port To Steer.
Taken
Loss
Opinion
In The Groves Of Their Academy, At The End Of Every Vista, You See Nothing But The Gallows.
Prejudice
Grove
Ends
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.
Mean
Human Nature
Reason
To Drive Men From Independence To Live On Alms, Is Itself Great Cruelty.
Men
Independence
Welfare
Some Decent Regulated Pre-eminence, Some Preference (not Exclusive Appropriation) Given To Birth, Is Neither Unnatural, Nor Unjust, Nor Impolite.
Unjust
Ancestry
Birth
It May Be Observed, That Very Polished Languages, And Such As Are Praised For Their Superior Clearness And Perspicuity, Are Generally Deficient In Strength.
May
Language
Clearness
For As Wealth Is Power, So All Power Will Infallibly Draw Wealth To Itself By Some Means Or Other; And When Men Are Left No Way Of Ascertaining Their Profits But By Their Means Of Obtaining Them, Those Means Will Be Increased To Infinity.
Mean
Power
Politics
Passion For Fame: A Passion Which Is The Instinct Of All Great Souls.
Passion
Soul
Intuition
The Parties Are The Gamesters; But Government Keeps The Table, And Is Sure To Be The Winner In The End.
Party
Government
Tables
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.
Moving
Fall
Race
We Set Ourselves To Bite The Hand That Feeds Us.
Hands
Bites
Ingratitude
Whenever A Separation Is Made Between Liberty And Justice, Neither, In My Opinion, Is Safe.
Freedom
Justice
Liberty
The Love Of Lucre, Though Sometimes Carried To A Ridiculous Excess, A Vicious Excess, Is The Grand Cause Of Prosperity To All States.
Excess
Causes
Ridiculous
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.
Air
Law
Uniforms
Nothing So Effectually Deadens The Taste Of The Sublime As That Which Is Light And Radiant.
Light
Sublime
Taste
An Event Has Happened, Upon Which It Is Difficult To Speak, And Impossible To Be Silent.
Events
Statistics
Scandal
An Extreme Rigor Is Sure To Arm Everything Against It.
Arms
Oppression
Rigor
Custom Reconciles Us To Everything.
Tradition
Reconcile
Customs
Contempt Is Not A Thing To Be Despised.
Contempt
Despised
Nothing In Progression Can Rest On Its Original Plan. We May As Well Think Of Rocking A Grown Man In The Cradle Of An Infant.
Men
Thinking
Design
He That Struggles With Us Strengthens Our Nerves, And Sharpens Our Skill. Our Antagonist Is Our Helper.
Inspirational
Life
Education
A Great Deal Of The Furniture Of Ancient Tyranny Is Torn To Rags; The Rest Is Entirely Out Of Fashion.
Fashion
Rags
Furniture
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.
Age
Looks
Gone
Over-taxation Cost England Her Colonies Of North America.
America
Cost
Taxation
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.
Government
Excellence
May
Sallust Is Indisputably One Of The Best Historians Among The Romans, Both For The Purity Of His Language And The Elegance Of His Style.
Style
Language
Purity
Men Are Qualified For Civil Liberty In Exact Proportion To Their Disposition To Put Moral Chains Upon Their Own Appetites…in Proportion As They Are More Disposed To Listen To The Counsels Of The Wise And Good, In Preference To The Flattery Of Knaves. Society Cannot Exist, Unless A Controlling Power Upon Will And Appetite Be Placed Somewhere; And The Less Of It There Is Within, The More There Must Be Without. It Is Ordained In The Eternal Constitution Of Things, That Men Of Intemperate Minds Cannot Be Free. Their Passions Forge Their Fetters.
Wise
Passion
Men
Dangers By Being Despised Grow Great.
Hate
Danger
Despise
Tyrants Seldom Want Pretexts.
Peace
War
Tyrants
There Is A Time When The Hoary Head Of Inveterate Abuse Will Neither Draw Reverence Nor Obtain Protection.
Abuse
Protection
Reverence
Delusion And Weakness Produce Not One Mischief The Less, Because They Are Universal.
Weakness
Produce
Delusion
Gambling Is A Principle Inherent In Human Nature.
Gambling
Principles
Human Nature
The Greater The Power, The More Dangerous The Abuse.
Bullying
Freedom
Work
The True Way To Mourn The Dead Is To Take Care Of The Living Who Belong To Them.
Mourning
Care
Way
Those Who Attempt To Level Never Equalize
Levels
There Is Nothing In The World Really Beneficial That Does Not Lie Within The Reach Of An Informed Understanding And A Well-protected Pursuit.
Lying
Understanding
Doe
Economy Is A Distributive Virtue, And Consists Not In Saving But Selection. Parsimony Requires No Providence, No Sagacity, No Powers Of Combination, No Comparison, No Judgment.
Saving
Judgment
Virtue
Those Who Have Been Intoxicated With Power... Can Never Willingly Abandon It.
Power
Political
Term Limits
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.
Reality
Color
Giving
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.
Government
Democracy
Helping
To Prove That The Americans Ought Not To Be Free, We Are Obliged To Deprecate The Value Of Freedom Itself.
Freedom
Prove
Ought
Power Gradually Extirpates From The Mind Every Humane And Gentle Virtue.
Power
Mind
Politics
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.
Passion
Soul
Causes
Liberty Must Be Limited In Order To Be Possessed.
Order
Liberty
Possessed
The Ocean Is An Object Of No Small Terror.
Ocean
Sailing
Nautical
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.
Art
Men
Mind
To Reach The Height Of Our Ambition Is Like Trying To Reach The Rainbow; As We Advance It Recedes.
Christian
Ambition
Rainbow
Crimes Lead Into One Another. They Who Are Capable Of Being Forgers, Are Capable Of Being Incendiaries.
Prison
Crime
Capable
"war," Says Machiavelli, "ought To Be The Only Study Of A Prince;" And By A Prince He Means Every Sort Of State, However Constituted. "he Ought," Says This Great Political Doctor, "to Consider Peace Only As A Breathing-time, Which Gives Him Leisure To Contrive, And Furnishes Ability To Execute Military Plans." A Meditation On The Conduct Of Political Societies Made Old Hobbes Imagine That War Was The State Of Nature.
Peace
War
Military
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.
Errors
Conservative
Pursuit
Poetry Is The Art Of Substantiating Shadows, And Of Lending Existence To Nothing.
Art
Poetry
Shadow
And Having Looked To Government For Bread, On The Very First Scarcity They Will Turn And Bite The Hand That Fed Them.
Hands
Government Welfare
Scarcity
By Gnawing Through A Dike, Even A Rat May Drown A Nation.
Inspirational
Perseverance
May
Man Is By His Constitution A Religious Animal.
Religious
Animal
Men
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.
Wise
Encouragement
Good Man
Laws, Like Houses, Lean On One Another.
Freedom
Law
House
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.
Thinking
Superstitions
Should
Teach Me, O Lark! With Thee To Greatly Rise, To Exalt My Soul And Lift It To The Skies.
Sky
Soul
Larks
Vice Itself Lost Half Its Evil, By Losing All Its Grossness.
Evil
Vices
Half
All Government, Indeed Every Human Benefit And Enjoyment, Every Virtue, And Every Prudent Act, Is Founded On Compromise And Barter.
Commitment
Government
Political
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.
Science
Water
Suffering
Equity Money Is Dynamic And Debt Money Is Static.
Debt
Static
Equity
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