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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

-Edmund Burke

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The Greatest Crimes Do

Edmund Burke

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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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Contempt Is Not A Thing To Be Despised. It May Be Borne With A Calm And Equal Mind, But No Man, By Lifting His Head High, Can Pretend That He Does Not Perceive The Scorns That Are Poured Down On Him From Above.

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

The Nerve That Never Relaxes, The Eye That Never Blanches, The Thought That Never Wanders, The Purpose That Never Wavers - These Are The Masters Of Victory.

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

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.

The Public Interest Requires Doing Today Those Things That Men Of Intelligence And Good Will Would Wish, Five Or Ten Years Hence, Had Been Done.

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

Whenever Government Abandons Law, It Proclaims Anarchy.

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.

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

The Wisdom Of Our Ancestors.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Great Men Are Never Sufficiently Shown But In Struggles.

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.

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.

You Can Never Plan The Future By The Past.

An Extreme Rigor Is Sure To Arm Everything Against It.

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.

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

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

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.

The Grand Instructor, Time.

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

Broken Promises

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

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 People Of England Well Know That The Idea Of Inheritance Furnishes A Sure Principle Of Conservation And A Sure Principle Of Transmission, Without At All Excluding A Principle Of Improvement.

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

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.

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

Conquering Fear

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

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

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

Men Who Undertake Considerable Things, Even In A Regular Way, Ought To Give Us Ground To Presume Ability.

Instead Of Casting Away All Our Old Prejudices, We Cherish Them To A Very Considerable Degree, And, To Take More Shame To Ourselves, We Cherish Them Because They Are Prejudices; And The Longer They Have Lasted And The More Generally They Have Prevailed, The More We Cherish Them. We Are Afraid To Put Men To Live And Trade Each On His Own Private Stock Of Reason; Because We Suspect That This Stock In Each Man Is Small, And That The Individuals Would Do Better To Avail Themselves Of The General Bank And Capital Of Nations And Of Ages.

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

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.

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

Oppressive Governments

Spain: A Whale Stranded Upon The Coast Of Europe.

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

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

It Is 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.

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 Has All The Contortions Of The Sibyl Without The Inspiration.

Man Is By His Constitution A Religious Animal.

Education Is The Cheap Defense Of Nations.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Free Trade Is Not Based On Utility But On Justice.

Great Men Are The Guideposts And Landmarks In The State.

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

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.

Equity Money Is Dynamic And Debt Money Is Static.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

When The Leaders Choose To Make Themselves Bidders At An Auction Of Popularity, Their Talents, In The Construction Of The State, Will Be Of No Service. They Will Become Flatterers Instead Of Legislators; The Instruments, Not The Guides, Of The People.

Custom Reconciles Us To Everything.

Pleasure Of Every Kind Quickly Satisfies.

To Complain Of The Age We Live In, To Murmur At The Present Possessors Of Power, To Lament The Past, To Conceive Extravagant Hopes Of The Future, Are The Common Dispositions Of The Greatest Part Of Mankind.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Over-taxation Cost England Her Colonies Of North America.

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

Party Is A Body Of Men United, For Promoting By Their Joint Endeavours The National Interest, Upon Some Particular Principle In Which They Are All Agreed.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Falsehood Is A Perennial Spring.

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

The Moment That Government Appears At Market, The Principles Of The Market Will Be Subverted.

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.

All Government Is Founded On Compromise And Banter.

Responsibility Prevents Crimes.

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

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

Thank God, Men That Art Greatly Guilty Are Never Wise.

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

We Set Ourselves To Bite The Hand That Feeds Us.

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

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 Am Not One Of Those Who Think That The People Are Never In The Wrong. They Have Been So, Frequently And Outrageously, Both In Other Countries And In This. But I Do Say That In All Disputes Between Them And Their Rulers, The Presumption Is At Least Upon A Par In Favour Of The People.

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.

Men Have No Right To What Is Not Reasonable, And To What Is Not For Their Benefit.

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.

It Is Not What A Lawyer Tells Me I May Do; But What Humanity, Reason, And Justice Tell Me I Ought To Do.

The Cause Of A Wrong Taste Is A Defect Of Judgment.

Politics And The Pulpit Are Terms That Have Little Agreement.

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.

All Those Instances To Be Found In History, Whether Real Or Fabulous, Of A Doubtful Public Spirit, At Which Morality Is Perplexed, Reason Is Staggered, And From Which Affrighted Nature Recoils, Are Their Chosen And Almost Sole Examples For The Instruction Of Their Youth.

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

Dangers By Being Despised Grow Great.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Education Is A Nation's Cheapest Defence

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Humanity Cannot Be Degraded By Humiliation.

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

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.

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

The Tribunal Of Conscience Exists Independent Of Edicts And Decrees.

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.

All Virtue Which Is Impracticable Is Spurious.

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 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.

Ambition Can Creep As Well As Soar.

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.

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 Undoubtedly The Business Of Ministers Very Much To Consult The Inclinations Of The People, But They Ought To Take Great Care That They Do Not Receive That Inclination From The Few Persons Who May Happen To Approach Them.

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 .

Beauty Is The Promise Of Happiness.

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.

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.

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

Religion Is Among The Most Powerful Causes Of Enthusiasm.

Good Order Is The Foundation Of All Things.

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

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?

One Source Of The Sublime Is Infinity.

I Venture To Say No War Can Be Long Carried On Against The Will Of The People.

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

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.

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.

It Looks To Me To Be Narrow And Pedantic To Apply The Ordinary Ideas Of Criminal Justice To This Great Public Contest. I Do Not Know The Method Of Drawing Up An Indictment Against A Whole People.

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

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

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

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.

Wars Are Just To Those To Whom They Are Necessary.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

There Is A Wide Difference Between Admiration And Love. The Sublime, Which Is The Cause Of The Former, Always Dwells On Great Objects And Terrible; The Latter On Small Ones And Pleasing; We Submit To What We Admire, But We Love What Submits To Us: In One Case We Are Forced, In The Other, We Are Flattered, Into Compliance.

There Are Circumstances In Which Despair Does Not Imply Inactivity.

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.

To Reach The Height Of Our Ambition Is Like Trying To Reach The Rainbow; As We Advance It Recedes.

A Disposition To Preserve, And An Ability To Improve, Taken Together, Would Be My Standard Of A Statesman.

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

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

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.

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.

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

He Only Deserves To Be Remembered By Posterity Who Treasures Up And Preserves The History Of His Ancestors.

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

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

There Is A Sort Of Enthusiasm In All Projectors, Absolutely Necessary For Their Affairs, Which Makes Them Proof Against The Most Fatiguing Delays, The Most Mortifying Disappointments, The Most Shocking Insults; And, What Is Severer Than All, The Presumptuous Judgement Of The Ignorant Upon Their Designs.

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.

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.

"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.

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

Evil Prevails When Good Men Fail To Act.

Of This Stamp Is The Cant Of, Not Men, But Measures.

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

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

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

Too Much Idleness, I Have Observed, Fills Up A Man's Time More Completely And Leaves Him Less His Own Master, Than Any Sort Of Employment Whatsoever

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

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William Golding

Abu Bakar Bashir

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