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Obstinacy, Sir, Is Certainly A Great Vice; And In The Changeful State Of Political Affairs It Is Frequently The Cause Of Great Mischief. It Happens, However, Very Unfortunately, That Almost The Whole Line Of The Great And Masculine Virtues--constancy, Gravity, Magnanimity, Fortitude, Fidelity, And Firmness--are Closely Allied To This Disagreeable Quality, Of Which You Have So Just An Abhorrence; And In Their Excess All These Virtues Very Easily Fall Into It.

-Edmund Burke

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Obstinacy, Sir, Is Certainly

Edmund Burke

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Obstinacy, Sir, Is Certainly A Great Vice; And In The Changeful State Of Political Affairs It Is Frequently The Cause Of Great Mischief. It Happens, However, Very Unfortunately, That Almost The Whole Line Of The Great And Masculine Virtues--constancy, Gravity, Magnanimity, Fortitude, Fidelity, And Firmness--are Closely Allied To This Disagreeable Quality, Of Which You Have So Just An Abhorrence; And In Their Excess All These Virtues Very Easily Fall Into It.

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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.

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.

To Innovate Is Not To Reform.

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

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.

All Government Is Founded On Compromise And Banter.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Broken Promises

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.

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.

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

God Has Sometimes Converted Wickedness Into Madness; And It Is To The Credit Of Human Reason That Men Who Are Not In Some Degree Mad Are Never Capable Of Being In The Highest Degree Wicked.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

The Nature Of Things Is, I Admit, A Sturdy Adversary.

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

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

Evils We Have Had Continually Calling For Reformation, And Reformations More Grievous Than Any Evils.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Old Religious Factions Are Volcanoes Burnt Out.

Law And Arbitrary Power Are At Eternal Enmity.

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

One Source Of The Sublime Is Infinity.

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.

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

Society Can Overlook Murder, Adultery Or Swindling; It Never Forgives Preaching Of A New Gospel.

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

Dangers By Being Despised Grow Great.

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.

All Virtue Which Is Impracticable Is Spurious.

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

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

The Essence Of Tyranny Is The Enforcement Of Stupid Laws.

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

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

Man Is By His Constitution A Religious Animal.

If The Prudence Of Reserve And Decorum Dictates Silence In Some Circumstances, In Others Prudence Of A Higher Order May Justify Us In Speaking Our Thoughts.

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

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

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

Greatest Wealth

The Grand Instructor, Time.

Politics And The Pulpit Are Terms That Have Little Agreement.

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.

What Shadows We Are, And What Shadows We Pursue!

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

The Traveller Has Reached The End Of The Journey!

I Do Not Hesitate To Say That The Road To Eminence And Power, From An Obscure Condition, Ought Not To Be Made Too Easy, Nor A Thing Too Much Of Course. If Rare Merit Be The Rarest Of All Things, It Ought To Pass Through Some Sort Of Probation. The Temple Of Honor Ought To Be Seated On An Eminence. If It Be Open Through Virtue, Let It Be Remembered, Too, That Virtue Is Never Tried But By Some Difficulty And Some Struggle.

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

Falsehood Is A Perennial Spring.

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.

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

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

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

My Good Friends, While I Do Most Earnestly Recommend You To Take Care Of Your Health And Safety, As Things Most Precious To Us, I Would Not Have That Care Degenerate Into An Effeminate And Over-curious Attention, Which Is Always Disgraceful To A Man's Self, And Often Troublesome To Others.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Responsibility Prevents Crimes.

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.

[slavery] Is A Weed That Grows In Every Soil.

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

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.

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

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

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.

I Despair Of Ever Receiving The Same Degree Of Pleasure From The Most Exalted Performances Of Genius Which I Felt In Childhood From Pieces Which My Present Judgment Regards As Trifling And Contemptible.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

A Coward's Courage Is In His Tongue.

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

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

He That Accuses All Mankind Of Corruption Ought To Remember That He Is Sure To Convict Only One.

Fiction Lags After Truth, Invention Is Unfruitful, And Imagination Cold And Barren.

Fellowship In Treason Is A Bad Ground Of Confidence.

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

Freedom Without Virtue Is Not Freedom But License To Pursue Whatever Passions Prevail In The Intemperate Mind; Man's Right To Freedom Being In Exact Proportion To His Willingness To Put Chains Upon His Own Appetites; The Less Restraint From Within, The More Must Be Imposed From Without.

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

The Greater The Power, The More Dangerous The Abuse.

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.

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

Liberty Must Be Limited In Order To Be Possessed.

The Great Inlet By Which A Colour For Oppression Has Entered Into The World Is By One Man's Pretending To Determine Concerning The Happiness Of Another.

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

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.

Turn Over A New Leaf.

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.

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

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.

The March Of The Human Mind Is Slow.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Arrogance Of Youth

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

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

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

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

An Appearance Of Delicacy, And Even Fragility, Is Almost Essential To Beauty.

The Use Of Force Alone Is But Temporary. It May Subdue For A Moment; But It Does Not Remove The Necessity Of Subduing Again; And A Nation Is Not Governed, Which Is Perpetually To Be Conquered.

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.

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.

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.

The Yielding Of The Weak Is The Concession To Fear.

Over-taxation Cost England Her Colonies Of North America.

Good Order Is The Foundation Of All Things.

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.

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 What Is Not Reasonable, And To What Is Not For Their Benefit.

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

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

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

It Ought To Be The Happiness And Glory Of A Representative To Live In The Strictest Union, The Closest Correspondence, And The Most Unreserved Communication With His Constituents. Their Wishes Ought To Have Great Weight With Him; Their Opinion, High Respect; Their Business, Unremitted Attention.

I Have Not Yet Lost A Feeling Of Wonder, And Of Delight, That The Delicate Motion Should Reside In All The Things Around Us, Revealing Itself Only To Him Who Looks For It.

It Is Known That The Taste--whatever It Is--is Improved Exactly As We Improve Our Judgment, By Extending Our Knowledge, By A Steady Attention To Our Object, And By Frequent Exercise.

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

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.

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.

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.

I Have Never Yet Seen Any Plan Which Has Not Been Mended By The Observations Of Those Who Were Much Inferior In Understanding To The Person Who Took The Lead In The Business.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Circumspection And Caution Are Part Of Wisdom.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Our Patience Will Achieve More Than Our Force.

Great Men Are Never Sufficiently Shown But In Struggles.

The Ocean Is An Object Of No Small Terror.

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

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.

Beauty Is The Promise Of Happiness.

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

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

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

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.

Superstition Is The Religion Of Feeble Minds.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Education Is A Nation's Cheapest Defence

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.

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

There Is Nothing That God Has Judged Good For Us That He Has Not Given Us The Means To Accomplish, Both In The Natural And The Moral World.

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

Spain: A Whale Stranded Upon The Coast Of Europe.

Contempt Is Not A Thing To Be Despised.

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.

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.

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

Nothing Less Will Content Me, Than Wholeamerica.

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.

Laws, Like Houses, Lean On One Another.

No Men Can Act With Effect Who Do Not Act In Concert; No Men Can Act In Concert Who Do Not Act With Confidence; No Men Can Act With Confidence Who Are Not Bound Together With Common Opinions, Common Affections, And Common Interests.

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

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.

Liberty, Without Wisdom, Is License.

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.

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

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.

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

We Set Ourselves To Bite The Hand That Feeds Us.

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.

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.

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

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

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

The Very Name Of A Politician, A Statesman, Is Sure To Cause Terror And Hatred; It Has Always Connected With It The Ideas Of Treachery, Cruelty, Fraud, And Tyranny.

Obstinacy, Sir, Is Certainly A Great Vice; And In The Changeful State Of Political Affairs It Is Frequently The Cause Of Great Mischief. It Happens, However, Very Unfortunately, That Almost The Whole Line Of The Great And Masculine Virtues--constancy, Gravity, Magnanimity, Fortitude, Fidelity, And Firmness--are Closely Allied To This Disagreeable Quality, Of Which You Have So Just An Abhorrence; And In Their Excess All These Virtues Very Easily Fall Into It.

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

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