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Taste And Elegance, Though They Are Reckoned Only Among The Smaller And Secondary Morals, Yet Are Of No Mean Importance In The Regulations Of Life. A Moral Taste Is Not Of Force To Turn Vice Into Virtue; But It Recommends Virtue With Something Like The Blandishments Of Pleasure, And It Infinitely Abates The Evils Of Vice.

-Edmund Burke

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Taste And Elegance, Though

Edmund Burke

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Taste And Elegance, Though They Are Reckoned Only Among The Smaller And Secondary Morals, Yet Are Of No Mean Importance In The Regulations Of Life. A Moral Taste Is Not Of Force To Turn Vice Into Virtue; But It Recommends Virtue With Something Like The Blandishments Of Pleasure, And It Infinitely Abates The Evils Of Vice.

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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.

Laws Are Commanded To Hold Their Tongues Among Arms; And Tribunals Fall To The Ground With The Peace They Are No Longer Able To Uphold.

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.

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.

In A Free Country Every Man Thinks He Has A Concern In All Public Matters,--that He Has A Right To Form And A Right To Deliver An Opinion On Them. This It Is That Fills Countries With Men Of Ability In All Stations.

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

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

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.

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

Fellowship In Treason Is A Bad Ground Of Confidence.

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

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

Arrogance Of Youth

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

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.

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.

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.

Wars Are Just To Those To Whom They Are Necessary.

All Persons Possessing Any Portion Of Power Ought To Be Strongly And Awfully Impressed With An Idea That They Act In Trust, And That They Are To Account For Their Conduct In That Trust To The One Great Master, Author, And Founder Of Society.

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.

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

Laws, Like Houses, Lean On One Another.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

Government Welfare

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.

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

The Greater The Power, The More Dangerous The Abuse.

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.

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

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.

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

Greatest Wealth

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.

Evil Succeeds When Good Men Do Nothing

Genuine Simplicity Of Heart Is A Healing And Cementing Principle.

The Ocean Is An Object Of No Small Terror.

The Unbought Grace Of Life, The Cheap Defence Of Nations, The Nurse Of Manly Sentiment And Heroic Enterprise Isgone! It Isgone, That Sensibility Of Principle, That Chastity Of Honour, Which Felt A Stain Like A Wound, Which Ennobled Whatever It Touched, And Under Which Vice Itself Lost Half Its Evil, By Losing All Its Grossness.

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

Politics And The Pulpit Are Terms That Have Little Agreement.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Fraud Is The Ready Minister Of Injustice.

You Can Never Plan The Future By The Past.

Custom Reconciles Us To Everything.

The Liberty I Mean Is Social Freedom. It Is That State Of Things In Which Liberty Is Secured By The Equality Of Restraint. A Constitution Of Things In Which The Liberty Of No One Man, And No Body Of Men, And No Number Of Men, Can Find Means To Trespass On The Liberty Of Any Person, Or Any Description Of Persons, In The Society. This Kind Of Liberty Is, Indeed, But Another Name For Justice.

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.

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

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

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.

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

My Hold Of The Colonies Is In The Close Affection Which Grows From Common Names, From Kindred Blood, From Similar Privileges, And Equal Protection. These Are Ties Which, Though Light As Air, Are As Strong As Links Of Iron.

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.

Man Is An Animal That Cooks His Victuals.

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.

Our Patience Will Achieve More Than Our Force.

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.

If You Can Be Well Without Health, You May Be Happy Without Virtue.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Nothing Is So Fatal To Religion As Indifference.

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

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

We Set Ourselves To Bite The Hand That Feeds Us.

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.

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

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.

It Is Very Rare, Indeed, For Men To Be Wrong In Their Feelings Concerning Public Misconduct; As Rare To Be Right In Their Speculations Upon The Cause Of It. I Have Constantly Observed That The Generality Of People Are Fifty Years, At Least, Behind In Their Politics.

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

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

Virtue Will Catch As Well As Vice By Contact; And The Public Stock Of Honest Manly Principle Will Daily Accumulate. We Are Not Too Nicely To Scrutinize Motives As Long As Action Is Irreproachable. It Is Enough (and For A Worthy Man Perhaps Too Much) To Deal Out Its Infamy To Convicted Guilt And Declared Apostasy.

Where Mystery Begins Religion Ends.

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

Great Men Are Never Sufficiently Shown But In Struggles.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

To Execute Laws Is A Royal Office; To Execute Orders Is Not To Be A King. However, A Political Executive Magistracy, Though Merely Such, Is A Great Trust.

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.

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

Public Calamity Is A Mighty Leveller.

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.

Liberty Must Be Limited In Order To Be Possessed.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Individual Is Foolish; The Multitude, For The Moment Is Foolish, When They Act Without Deliberation; But The Species Is Wise, And, When Time Is Given To It, As A Species It Always Acts Right.

The Tyranny Of A Multitude Is A Multiplied Tyranny.

Gambling Is A Principle Inherent In Human Nature.

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 .

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

An Event Has Happened, Upon Which It Is Difficult To Speak, And Impossible To Be Silent.

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

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.

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

But What Is Liberty Without Wisdom, And Without Virtue? It Is The Greatest Of All Possible Evils; For It Is Folly, Vice, And Madness, Without Tuition Or Restraint.

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.

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.

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

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.

Society Is Indeed A Contract. Subordinate Contracts For Objects Of Mere Occasional Interest May Be Dissolved At Pleasure - But The State Ought Not To Be Considered As Nothing Better Than A Partnership Agreement In A Trade Of Pepper And Coffee, Calico, Or Tobacco, Or Some Other Such Low Concern, To Be Taken Up For A Little Temporary Interest, And To Be Dissolved By The Fancy Of The Parties. It Is To Be Looked On With Other Reverence, Because It Is Not A Partnership In Things Subservient Only To The Gross Animal Existence Of A Temporary And Perishable Nature.

There Is But One Law For All, Namely That Law Which Governs All Law, The Law Of Our Creator, The Law Of Humanity, Justice, Equity - The Law Of Nature And Of Nations.

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.

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.

The Concessions Of The Weak Are The Concessions Of Fear.

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

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

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.

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

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

The Science Of Constructing A Commonwealth, Or Renovating It, Or Reforming It, Is, Like Every Other Experimental Science, Not To Be Taught A Priori. Nor Is It A Short Experience That Can Instruct Us In That Practical Science, Because The Real Effects Of Moral Causes Are Not Always Immediate.

Man Is By His Constitution A Religious Animal.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

They Defend Their Errors As If They Were Defending Their Inheritance.

The Greatest Sin Is To Do Nothing Because You Can Only Do A Little.

Making A Difference

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.

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

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

A Man Is Allowed Sufficient Freedom Of Thought, Provided He Knows How To Choose His Subject Properly.... But The Scene Is Changed As You Come Homeward, And Atheism Or Treason May Be The Names Given In Britain To What Would Be Reason And Truth If Asserted In China.

I Do Not Know The Method Of Drawing Up An Indictment Against A Whole People.

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

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

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

An Extreme Rigor Is Sure To Arm Everything Against It.

It Is The Nature Of All Greatness Not To Be Exact.

Humanity Cannot Be Degraded By Humiliation.

The Superfluities Of A Rich Nation Furnish A Better Object Of Trade Than The Necessities Of A Poor One. It Is The Interest Of The Commercial World That Wealth Should Be Found Everywhere.

England And Ireland May Flourish Together. The World Is Large Enough For Both Of Us. Let It Be Our Care Not To Make Ourselves Too Little For It.

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.

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

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

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

Spain: A Whale Stranded Upon The Coast Of Europe.

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.

Delusion And Weakness Produce Not One Mischief The Less, Because They Are Universal.

Education Is A Nation's Cheapest Defence

The Introduction Of Christianity, Which, Under Whatever Form, Always Confers Such Inestimable Benefits On Mankind, Soon Made A Sensible Change In These Rude And Fierce Manners.

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.

The Poorest Being That Crawls On Earth, Contending To Save Itself From Injustice And Oppression, Is An Object Respectable In The Eyes Of God And Man.

All Government Is Founded On Compromise And Banter.

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.

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.

"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.

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

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.

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.

People Will Not Look Forward To Posterity, Who Never Look Backward To Their Ancestors.

Ambition Can Creep As Well As Soar.

When Bad Men Combine, The Good Must Associate; Else They Will Fall One By One, An Unpitied Sacrifice In A Contemptible Struggle.

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

To Read Without Reflecting Is Like Eating Without Digesting.

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

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

War Never Leaves Where It Found A Nation.

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.

The Grand Instructor, Time.

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

The Essence Of Tyranny Is The Enforcement Of Stupid Laws.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

In Their Nomination To Office They Will Not Appoint To The Exercise Of Authority As To A Pitiful Job, But As To A Holy Function.

Good Order Is The Foundation Of All Things.

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.

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

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

Turn Over A New Leaf.

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.

The People Never Give Up Their Liberties But Under Some Delusion.

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.

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Phillips Brooks

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