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Quotes from Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents — Edmund Burke

1729–1797 Ireland

← All quotes by Edmund Burke

5 quotes

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

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770)

Of this stamp is the cant of, Not men, but measures.

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770)

Public life is a situation of power and energy; he trespasses against his duty who sleeps upon his watch, as well as he that goes over to the enemy.

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770)

In such a strait the wisest may well be perplexed, and the boldest staggered. The circumstances are in a great measure new. We have hardly any land-marks from the wisdom of our ancestors, to guide us. At best we can only follow the spirit of their proceeding in other cases.

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770)

So to be patriots as not to forget we are gentlemen.

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Edmund Burke (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.