661 Quotes by Edmund Burke

He had no failings which were not owing to a noble cause; to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immoderate passion for fame; a passion which is the instinct of all great souls.

All men have equal rights, but not to equal things.

A definition may be very exact, and yet go but a very little way towards informing us of the nature of the thing defined.

Religion is for the man in humble life, and to raise his nature, and to put him in mind of a state in which the privileges of opulence will cease, when he will be equal by nature, and may be more than equal by virtue.

Through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to perfection.

People must be taken as they are, and we should never try make them or ourselves better by quarreling with them.

We begin our public affection in our families. No cold relation is a zealous citizen.

By the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young; but, in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied tenor of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression.

There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.