WIST Quotations

Burke, Edmund -- “American Taxation,” speech, House of Commons (19 Apr 1774)

Dave — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 23:50:25 +0000

To tax and to please, no more than to love and be wise, is not given to men.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“American Taxation,” speech, House of Commons (19 Apr 1774)

Burke, Edmund -- “Conciliation with America,” speech, House of Commons (22 Mar 1775)

Dave — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:24:14 +0000

Peace implies reconciliation.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Conciliation with America,” speech, House of Commons (22 Mar 1775)

Burke, Edmund -- “Letter to a Member of the National Assembly” (1791)

Dave — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:25:34 +0000

Tyrants seldom want pretexts.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Letter to a Member of the National Assembly” (1791)

Full text.

Burke, Edmund -- “Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol on the Affairs of America” (1777)

Dave — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:16:37 +0000

I know many have been taught to think that moderation, in a case like this, is a sort of treason.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol on the Affairs of America” (1777)

Burke, Edmund -- “On Conciliation With America,” speech, House of Commons (22 Mar 1775)

Dave — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 17:07:01 +0000

Public calamity is a mighty leveler.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“On Conciliation With America,” speech, House of Commons (22 Mar 1775)
(Source)

Burke, Edmund -- “On Conciliation with America” (speech) (22 Mar 1775)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The use of force alone is 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.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“On Conciliation with America” (speech) (22 Mar 1775)

Burke, Edmund -- “Reflections on the Revolution in France” (1790)

Dave — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:29:40 +0000

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 (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Reflections on the Revolution in France” (1790)
(Source)

Burke, Edmund -- “Reflections on the Revolution in France” (1790)

Dave — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:51:48 +0000

Make the Revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Reflections on the Revolution in France” (1790)

Burke, Edmund -- “Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” (1770)

Dave — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 21:36:23 +0000

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. They serve equally the first capacities and the lowest; and they are, at least, as useful to the worst men as to the best. Of this stamp is the cant of not man, but measures; a sort of charm by which many people get loose from every honourable engagement.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” (1770)

Burke, Edmund -- “Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” (23 Apr 1770)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” (23 Apr 1770)

May be the origin of the attributed (but never located in Burke's works): "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." See also Mill.

Burke, Edmund -- “Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” (23 Apr 1770)

Dave — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:00:43 +0000

To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament for the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” (23 Apr 1770)

Burke, Edmund -- “Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” (23 Apr 1770)

Dave — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:43:13 +0000

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.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
“Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” (23 Apr 1770)

Burke, Edmund -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Nobody makes a greater mistake then he who does nothing because he could only do a little.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
(Attributed)

Burke, Edmund -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
(Attributed)

Burke, Edmund -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:16:40 +0000

Is it in destroying and pulling down that skill is displayed? The shallowest understanding, the rudest hand, is more than equal to that task.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
(Attributed)

Burke, Edmund -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 13:08:03 +0000

If an idiot were to tell you the same story every day for a year, you would end by believing it.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
(Attributed)

Cited in J.F. Boyes, Lacon in Council (1865). Also attributed to Horace Mann.

Burke, Edmund -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 15:02:35 +0000

If an idiot were to tell you the same story every day for a year, you would end by believing it.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
(Attributed)
(Source)

Quoted without citation in John Frederick Boyes, Lacon in Council, "Literature, Poetry, Oratory, Genius, &c." (1865). That is the earliest reference I could find for this quote.

Sometimes misattributed to Horace Mann.

Burke, Edmund -- (Spurious)

Dave — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 18:13:55 +0000

Education is the cheap defence of nations.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
(Spurious)

American spelling variant: "Education is the cheap defense of nations."

While widely quoted since the early 19th Century, there is no record of Burke having said or written it. The earliest references come from Thomas Chalmers (1827, 1832), who mentions it as a well-known quotation, but many other uses of it show up quickly after (1835, 1837, 1838, 1839, etc.), continuing through the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Burke did, in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), make a reference to the "cheap defence of nations," but in the very different context of praising the social order of genteel nobility and honor. In a passage bemoaning the execution of Marie Antoinette, he wrote (emphasis mine):

But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded, and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever. Never, never more, shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom! The unbought grace of life, the cheap defense of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise is gone. It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honor, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.

It's unclear how this phrase got "Education is ..." grafted to it, though some see it as an intentional and nefarious fabrication.

Burke, Edmund -- A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 1.19 (1756)

Dave — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 13:25:23 +0000

The elevation of the mind ought to be the principal end of all our studies.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 1.19 (1756)

Burke, Edmund -- A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 2.2 (1756)

Dave — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:54:34 +0000

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 2.2 (1756)

Burke, Edmund -- A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 3.15 (1756)

Dave — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 15:46:44 +0000

Observe that part of a beautiful woman where she is perhaps the most beautiful, about the neck and breasts; the smoothness; the softness; the easy and insensible swell; the variety of the surface, which is never for the smallest space the same; the deceitful maze, through which the unsteady eye slides giddily, without knowing where to fix, or whither it is carried. Is not this a demonstration of that change of surface continual and yet hardly perceptible at any point which forms one of the great constituents of beauty?

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 3.15 (1756)
(Source)

Burke, Edmund -- A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 4.19 (1756)

Dave — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:25:27 +0000

Custom reconciles us to everything.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 4.19 (1756)

Burke, Edmund -- A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)

Dave — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:01:39 +0000

All Empires have been cemented in blood.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)

Burke, Edmund -- A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)

Dave — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 12:45:08 +0000

It is hard to say whether the doctors of law or divinity have made the greater advances in the lucrative business of mystery.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)

Burke, Edmund -- A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)

Dave — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 13:25:37 +0000

We are indebted for all our Miseries to our Distrust of that Guide which Providence thought sufficient for our Condition, our own Natural Reason, which rejecting both in Human and Divine things, we have given our Necks to the Yoke of Political and Theological Slavery.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)

Burke, Edmund -- A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)

Dave — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 12:11:48 +0000

The whole Business of the Poor is to administer to the Idleness, Folly, and Luxury of the Rich; and that of the Rich, in return, to find the best Methods of confirming the Slavery and increasing the Burdens of the Poor.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)

Burke, Edmund -- A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)

Dave — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 12:37:08 +0000

Show me an absurdity in Religion, I will undertake to show you a hundred in Political Laws and Institutions.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)

Burke, Edmund -- Letters on a Regicide Peace, Letter 1 “On the Overtures of Peace” (1796)

Dave — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 13:52:07 +0000

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Letters on a Regicide Peace, Letter 1 “On the Overtures of Peace” (1796)
(Source)

The first letter -- on the Pitt government's efforts to negotiate a peace with Revolutionary France -- was written in January 1796, but not published (with the second) until October.

Burke, Edmund -- Letters on a Regicide Peace, Letter 1 (1796)

Dave — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 15:46:38 +0000

Manners are of more importance than laws. Upon them, in a great measure, the laws depend. The law touches us but here and there, and now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, but a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in. They give their whole form and color to our lives. According to their quality, they aid morals, they supply them, or they totally destroy them.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Letters on a Regicide Peace, Letter 1 (1796)
(Source)

Burke, Edmund -- Letters on a Regicide Peace, Vol. 5, Letter 1 (1796)

Dave — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 03:08:26 +0000

Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Letters on a Regicide Peace, Vol. 5, Letter 1 (1796)

Burke, Edmund -- Observations on a Late Publication, “The Present State of the Nation” (1769)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Observations on a Late Publication, “The Present State of the Nation” (1769)

Burke, Edmund -- On the Sublime and Beautiful, Part II, Sec. 2 (1756)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
On the Sublime and Beautiful, Part II, Sec. 2 (1756)

Burke, Edmund -- On the Sublime and the Beautiful, Sect. xviii. vol. i. (1756)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Custom reconciles us to everything.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
On the Sublime and the Beautiful, Sect. xviii. vol. i. (1756)

Burke, Edmund -- Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
(Source)

Burke, Edmund -- Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

All persons possessing any portion of power ought to be strongly and awfully impressed with an idea that they act in trust.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Burke, Edmund -- Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Burke, Edmund -- Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Dave — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:17:27 +0000

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Burke, Edmund -- Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Dave — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:13:46 +0000

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
(Source)

Burke, Edmund -- Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Dave — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:39:21 +0000

Eloquence may exist without a proportionable degree of wisdom.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Full text.

Burke, Edmund -- Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Dave — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:08:04 +0000

Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Burke, Edmund -- Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Dave — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:28:59 +0000

All persons possessing any portion of power ought to be strongly and awfully impressed with an idea that they act in trust.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Burke, Edmund -- Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Dave — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:54:57 +0000

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Burke, Edmund -- Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Dave — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 13:24:50 +0000

A brave people will certainly prefer liberty, accompanied by virtuous poverty, to a depraved and wealthy servitude.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Burke, Edmund -- Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Dave — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 17:35:21 +0000

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.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
(Source)

On preachers who mix politics into their sermons.

Burke, Edmund -- Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Dave — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 21:18:23 +0000

The arguments of tyranny are as contemptible as its force is dreadful.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
(Source)

Burke, Edmund -- Letter to Charles James Fox (8 Oct 1777)

Dave — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:12:24 +0000

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 to hope and nothing to lose, will always be dangerous, more or less.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Letter to Charles James Fox (8 Oct 1777)

Burke, Edmund -- Letter to Richard Burke (c. 1795)

Dave — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:56:05 +0000

A very great part of the mischiefs that vex this world arises from words.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Letter to Richard Burke (c. 1795)

Burke, Edmund -- Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (3 Apr 1777)

Dave — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 09:33:08 +0000

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (3 Apr 1777)

Burke, Edmund -- Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (3 Apr 1777)

Dave — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:11:35 +0000

He that accuses all mankind of corruption ought to remember that he is sure to convict only one.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (3 Apr 1777)

Burke, Edmund -- Speech (18 Feb 1788)

Dave — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:22:14 +0000

Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Speech (18 Feb 1788)

Quoted in E. A. Bond (ed.), Speeches ... in the Trial of Warren Hastings, vol. 1 (1859)

Burke, Edmund -- Speech at Bristol, previous to the election (6 Sep 1780)

Dave — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:59:20 +0000

I did not obey your instructions. No. I conformed to the instructions of truth and Nature, and maintained your interest, against your opinions, with a constancy that became me. A representative worthy of you ought to be a person of stability. I am to look, indeed, to your opinions, — but to such opinions as you and I must have five years hence. I was not to look to the flash of the day. I knew that you chose me, in my place, along with others, to be a pillar of the state, and not a weathercock on the top of the edifice, exalted for my levity and versatility, and of no use but to indicate the shiftings of every fashionable gale.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Speech at Bristol, previous to the election (6 Sep 1780)

Burke, Edmund -- Speech on Conciliation with America (22 Mar 1775)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Speech on Conciliation with America (22 Mar 1775)

Burke, Edmund -- Speech on Economical Reform, House of Commons (11 Feb 1780)

Dave — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 19:18:52 +0000

They defend their errors as if they were defending their inheritance.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Speech on Economical Reform, House of Commons (11 Feb 1780)
(Source)

Burke, Edmund -- Speech to the electors of Bristol (3 Nov 1774)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Certainly, Gentlemen, 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 opinions high respect; their business unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasure, his satisfactions, to theirs, — and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own.

But his unbiased opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure, — no, nor from the law and the Constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. 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.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Speech to the electors of Bristol (3 Nov 1774)

Burke, Edmund -- Speech, Buckinghamshire (1784)

Dave — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 15:19:42 +0000

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Speech, Buckinghamshire (1784)