What Edmund Burke thinks about government
Irish-born British statesman and political philosopher (1729 to 1797); author of Reflections on the Revolution in France.
Edmund Burke did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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6 dated positions, 1775 to c. 1790, in their own words. Our reading of what Edmund Burke has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsGovernment is not made in virtue of natural rights, which may and do exist in total independence of it,—and exist in much greater clearness, and in a much greater degree of abstract perfection: but their abstract perfection is their practical defect. By having a right to everything they want everything.
↗Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)gutenberg.org All 21 from this book
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Our readingBritain should seek simple peace with the colonies, not peace through war or legal disputes
Their wordsThe proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal discord fomented, from principle, in all parts of the Empire, not peace to depend on the juridical determination of perplexing questions, or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It is simple peace; sought in its natural course, and in its ordinary haunts.
↗Speech on Conciliation with America (22 March 1775)gutenberg.org All 18 from this book
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Their wordsIn other countries, the people, more simple, and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in government only by an actual grievance; here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the badness of the principle. They augur misgovernment at a distance, and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.
↗Speech on Conciliation with America (22 March 1775)gutenberg.org All 18 from this book
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Their wordsThree thousand miles of ocean lie between you and them. No contrivance can prevent the effect of this distance in weakening government.
↗Speech on Conciliation with America (22 March 1775)gutenberg.org All 18 from this book
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Their wordsI am not determining a point of law, I am restoring tranquillity; and the general character and situation of a people must determine what sort of government is fitted for them. That point nothing else can or ought to determine.
↗Speech on Conciliation with America (22 March 1775)gutenberg.org All 18 from this book
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Their wordsAll government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. We balance inconveniences; we give and take; we remit some rights, that we may enjoy others; and we choose rather to be happy citizens than subtle disputants.
↗Speech on Conciliation with America (22 March 1775)gutenberg.org All 18 from this book