Quotes By Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke (1729 -1797) was an Irish political philosopher who continues to be widely quoted.  Following are some quotes that this blogger finds worthy of posting (via Wikiquote):

I take toleration to be a part of religion. I do not know which I would sacrifice; I would keep them both: it is not necessary that I should sacrifice either.

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

The individual is foolish; the multitude, for the moment is foolish, when they act without deliberation; but the species is wise, and, when time is given to it, as a species it always acts right.

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon 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.

The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.

The first and the simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind is Curiosity.

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

Falsehood has a perennial spring.

It is not, what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice, tell me I ought to do.

All government — indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act — is founded on compromise and barter.

Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom.

A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.

Writers, especially when they act in a body and with one direction, have great influence on the public mind.

We must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation.

Manners are of more importance than laws. The law can touch us here and there, now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation like that of the air we breathe in.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. (note: it is disputed that Burke is the author, as there are several very similar quotes in history)
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It is noted that many regard Edmund Burke as the father of modern conservatism.  This blogger finds in these quotes wisdom that is rare in current politically conservative statements.