The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice.A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1757, 2nd edition 1759
Author · 17 quotes
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) was an Irish statesman, philosopher, and political theorist. He is best known for his advocacy of conservative thought, his opposition to the French Revolution, and his support for individual liberties and the rights of colonized peoples. Burke's writings had a profound influence on political philosophy and are considered foundational to modern conservatism.
1729–1797·lived 68 years
The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice.A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1757, 2nd edition 1759
When you fear something, learn as much about it as you can. Knowledge conquers fear.Edmund Burke's Timeless Wisdom on Liberty and Freedom, AMAC, 2023
You can never plan the future by the past.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790
The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.Reflections on the Revolution in France, p. 87, 1790
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790
Ambition can creep as well as soar.Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790
The traveller has reached the end of the journey!
Our patience will achieve more than our force.Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790
If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.Letters on a Regicide Peace, Letter 1 On the Overtures of Peace, 1796
Beauty is the promise of happiness.A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas Of the Sublime and Beautiful, 1756
To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
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.Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790
We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe, 1792
Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy, p. 185, 1850
That’s all 17 quotes by Edmund Burke.