Edmund Burke

Political Theory Irish-British 1729 – 1797 95 quotes

An Irish statesman and philosopher, considered the father of modern conservatism, who critiqued the French Revolution in 'Reflections on the Revolution in France' and advocated for gradual change.

Quotes by Edmund Burke

Through the unknown, we'll see the truth.

Book 1757

Obstinacy is ever most positive when it is most in the wrong.

Book 1790

The cold, the dead, the dark, and the absence of light are all sources of the sublime.

Book 1757

Power surrendered in jest is often resumed in earnest.

Book 1790

The wisdom of our ancestors is in the Constitution.

Book 1790

Revolutions are the last desperate remedy.

Book 1790

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.

Book 1757

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

Book 1790

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom.

Speech 1775

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.

Speech 1774

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

Book 1790

The religion most prevalent in our northern country is a refinement on the worship of wealth.

Book 1790

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

Book 1757

The march of the human mind is slow.

Book 1790

Society is indeed a contract... it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.

Book 1790