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You can never plan the future by the past.

— Edmund Burke A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791)

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More quotes by Edmund Burke

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

People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

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)

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

Speech at a County Meeting of Buckinghamshire (1784)

People must be governed in a manner agreeable to their temper and disposition; and men of free character and spirit must be ruled with, at least, some condescension to this spirit and this character.

Observations on a Late Publication on the Present State of the Nation (1769)

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Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.

Abraham Cowley Poems (1656)

The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die.

Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edmund Burke (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.