Edmund Burke


Quotes by This Author


“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” (Edmund Burke, April 23, 1770.)

“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains on their own appetites—in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity;—in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption;—in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. 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 is without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.” (Edmund Burke, A Letter From Mr. Burke To A Member Of The National Assembly, 1791.)

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil, is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke, Richard L. Evans Quotebook, p. 88.)

“The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.” (Edmund Burke)

“Certain we are, that no book has appeared since the commencement of our labours, which was more necessary to be read, and weighted attentively, by every person of any property, whether hereditary or commercial; every person holding any rank in society; and every person who has within him a spark of zeal, either for the honour of God or the welfare of mankind.” (Edmund Burke, regarding Abbe Augustin Barruel's work Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism. A four volume work detailing the history, methods and means of the secret combination started by Adam Weishaupt, known as the Order of the Illuminati. Application of Barruel’s Memoirs of Jacobinism to the Secret Societies of Ireland and Great Britain, London: E. Booker)