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CytatyEdmund BurkeIrish orator, philosopher, & politician (1729 - 1797)A man who works beyond the surface of things, though he may be wrong himself, yet he clears the way for others and may make even his errors subservient to the cause of truth.A man who works beyond the surface of things,though he may be wrong himself, yet he clears the way for others and may make even his errors subservient to the cause of truth. All government -- indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act -- is founded on compromise and barter. All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. Bad law is the worst sort of tyranny. Better be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident security. Fraud is the ready minister of injustice. Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises; for never intending to go beyond promises; it costs nothing. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. It is by imitation, far more than by precept, that we learn everything; and what we learn thus, we acquire not only more efficiently, but more pleasantly. This forms our manners, our opinions, our lives. It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact. Men have no right to put the well-being of the present generation wholly out of the question. Perhaps the only moral trust with any certainty in our hands is the care of our own time. Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair. Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair. No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little. |
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