Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Edmund Burke was an Anglo-Irish writer, philosopher, and politician who is widely credited as the founder of the cultural and political philosophy of conservatism. Regarded as one of the most influential conservative thinkers and political writers of the 18th century, Burke spent the majority of his career in Great Britain and was elected as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1766 to 1794 in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party. His writings played a significant role in influencing public views and opinions in both Great Britain and France following the French Revolution in 1789, and he remains a major figure in modern conservative circles.

Quotes

A man who works beyond the surface of things,though he may be wrong himself, yet he clears the way for others and may make even his errors subservient to the cause of truth.
A man who works beyond the surface of things, though he may be wrong himself, yet he clears the way for others and may make even his errors subservient to the cause of truth.
He who wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.
Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.

Wisdom
Contempt is not a thing to be despised.
An event had happened, upon which it is difficult to speak, and impossible to be silent.

Actions
Our patience will achieve more than our force.

Patience
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Evil
Better be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident security.

Security
Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair.
Good order is the foundation of all things.
All government -- indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act -- is founded on compromise and barter.
Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises; for never intending to go beyond promises; it costs nothing.

Promises
It is by imitation, far more than by precept, that we learn everything; and what we learn thus, we acquire not only more efficiently, but more pleasantly. This forms our manners, our opinions, our lives.
Fraud is the ready minister of injustice.
Men have no right to put the well-being of the present generation wholly out of the question. Perhaps the only moral trust with any certainty in our hands is the care of our own time.
Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.