A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.
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

A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
Edmund Burke

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

All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice.
Edmund Burke

All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.
Edmund Burke

Ambition can creep as well as soar.
Edmund Burke

Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.
Edmund Burke

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.
Edmund Burke

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
Edmund Burke


Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty.
Edmund Burke

Beauty is the promise of happiness.
Edmund Burke

But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.
Edmund Burke

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.
Edmund Burke

By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.
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

Custom reconciles us to everything.
Edmund Burke

Education is the cheap defense of nations.
Edmund Burke

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

Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.
Edmund Burke