Edmund Burke

"Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character."

"He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill."

"The eyes of that species of men can hardly be shut, in any fatal error."

"Virtues are formed by education and habits."

"Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan."

"Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue."

"Fear of the unknown is a greater source of suffering than actual misfortune."

"The external appearance of any given society is determined more by its customs and manners than by its laws."

"Art is man's nature; nature is God's art."

"The love of lucre, though one of the basest of passions, is a great incentive to action and ingenuity."

"He that accuses all mankind of corruption ought to remember that he is sure to convict only one."

"It is often impossible to see things in perspective when one is too close to them."

"The capacity for justice makes democracy possible; the inclination to justice makes it indispensable."

"Tell me what are the prevailing sentiments that occupy the minds of your countrymen, and I will tell you what is to be the character of your government."

"I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people."

"Providence operates in the invisible world, and we who are, as it were, admitted behind the veil ought not to raise the curtain before others until we are well assured what we are to reveal to them."

"Life itself is a fleeting and momentary thing; but it is not the less glorious."

"There is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination."

"Man is a creature of habit more than of reason."

"The great majority of mankind will never be convinced of the truth by argument alone."

"The laboring people of Great Britain have been the real architects of its greatness."

"Real power is achieved when the point of honesty is crossed."

"What is the use of discussing a man's abstract right to food or to medicine? The question is upon the system of the means by which it is provided and administered."

"Obedience is what makes the world habitable; without it nothing could subsist."

"All the political agitations of our age tend to resolve into one great problem—Liberty and Authority."

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

"Vanity makes even the vicious sociable; and makes many a disagreeable man tolerable in company."

"Let the credit of a nation's character be as carefully guarded as the purity of a woman's reputation."

"The mind of man is made up of contradictions; and these contradictions are not occasional, accidental, or trifling."

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