Edmund Burke was an Irish philosopher, political theorist and author. He was born on 12 January 1729 and was educated at Trinity College Dublin. He was elected as a member of the British parliament in 1765 and spent most of his life in London.
Burke was one of the leading political thinkers of the day and wrote numerous essays and pamphlets on major issues. He supported the Americans in the War of Independence.
In a speech in the British parliament, he pleaded with King George III not impose taxes on the American colonists. In 1775, he pleaded with the king to seek reconciliation with the Americans but to no avail. The American War of Independence began a year later.
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Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.
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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.
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Our patience will achieve more than our force.
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All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
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Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
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All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.
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By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.
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Beauty is the promise of happiness.
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The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up any of their own.
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Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.
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The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
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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.
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Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.
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It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.
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Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.
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Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.
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Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.
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He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
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Edmund Burke’s father was a Protestant and his mother was Catholic. Burke was brought up in the Church of Ireland and remained a Protestant all his life, although his political enemies often accused him of being a closet Catholic in an attempt to smear his name in 18th century England.
In 1757, he married Jane Nugent, the daughter of a Catholic doctor who had treated him in England. They had one surviving son, named Richard.
Burke is remembered as a great political philosopher and the father of modern conservatism. He remains influential today and is one of the most quoted political writers of all time.
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