Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke was an Anglo-Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher who served for many years in the British House of Commons as a member of the Whig party. He is mainly remembered for his support of the American colonies in the dispute with King George III and Great Britain that led to the American Revolution and for his strong opposition to the French Revolution. The latter made Burke one of the leading figures within the conservative faction of the Whig party (which he dubbed the "Old Whigs"), in opposition to the pro-French-Revolution "New Whigs", led by Charles James Fox. Burke also published a philosophical work where he attempted to define emotions and passions, and how they are triggered in a person. Burke worked on aesthetics and founded the Annual Register, a political review. He is often regarded by conservatives as the philosophical founder of Anglo-American conservatism.
“It is a general popular error to imagine the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.”
“Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.”
“People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.”
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.”
“Well is it known that ambition can creep as well as soar.”
“It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”
“I have not yet lost a feeling of wonder, and of delight, that the delicate motion should reside in all the things around us, revealing itself only to him who looks for it.”
“But what is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint. Those who know what virtuous liberty is, cannot bear to see it disgraced by incapable heads, on account of their having high-sounding words in their mouths.”
“There is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination.”
“He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.”
“Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.”
“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."[Preface to Brissot's Address to His Constituents (1794)]”
“If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.”
“Our patience will achieve more than our force.”
“Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.”
“Woman is not made to be the admiration of all, but the happiness of one.”
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”