"All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they may alter the mode and application, but have no power over the substance of original justice."
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Quote collection
Edmund Burke quotes (page 11 of 25)
492 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"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."
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"The body of all true religion consists, to be sure, in obedience to the will of the Sovereign of the world, in a confidence in His declarations, and in imitation of His perfections."
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"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."
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"He that accuses all mankind of corruption ought to remember that he is sure to convict only one."
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"War never leaves where it found a nation."
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"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."
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"In all forms of government the people is the true legislator."
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"Hypocrisy is no cheap vice; nor can our natural temper be masked for many years together."
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"Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety."
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"Law and arbitrary power are at eternal enmity."
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"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"
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"Gambling is a principle inherent in human nature."
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"Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants."
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"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."
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"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."
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"A good parson once said that where mystery begins religion ends. Cannot I say, as truly at least, of human laws, that where mystery begins justice ends?"
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"The wisdom of our ancestors."
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"The truly sublime is always easy, and always natural."
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"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."
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