Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing. – Edmund Burke
Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation. – Edmund Burke
Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society. – Edmund Burke
Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind. – Edmund Burke
Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe. – Edmund Burke
It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters. – Edmund Burke
Whenever our neighbour’s house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own. – Edmund Burke
The most important of all revolutions, a revolution in sentiments, manners and moral opinions. – Edmund Burke
All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice. – Edmund Burke
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. – Edmund Burke
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. – Edmund Burke
He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. – Edmund Burke
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. – Edmund Burke
A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors. – Edmund Burke
Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together. – Edmund Burke
It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do. – Edmund Burke
