Edmund Burke Quotes

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

Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.

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

The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.

It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.

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.

Frugality is founded on the principal that all riches have limits.

Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.

Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

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.

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.

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.

Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.