A great empire and little minds go ill together.
Edmund BurkeRead
It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.
Interpretation
Not all those who complain are genuinely concerned about others' well-being.
This quote by Edmund Burke highlights the fallacy of assuming that those who vocally criticize or complain about societal issues are the ones who care the most for the public's welfare. In reality, such complaints may stem from personal agendas rather than a true commitment to improving the community or society as a whole.
In practice
In a debate about community improvement, you might use this quote to argue that not every critic has the best interests of the community at heart.
A great empire and little minds go ill together.
To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.
Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
One is rarely an impulsive innovator after the age of sixty, but one can still be a very fine orderly and inventive thinker. One rarely procreates children at that age, but one is all the more skilled at educating those who have already been procreated, and education is procreation of another kind.
Don't mistake activity with achievement.
Not even the deepest sleep will give you such a rest as meditation can. The mind goes on jumping even in deepest sleep. Just those few moments in meditation your brain has almost stopped. ... You forget the body. ... You feel such pleasure in it. You become so light. This perfect rest we will get in meditation.
Your mental attitude is the most dependable key to your personality.
Have patience. Wait until the mud settles and the water is clear. Remain unmoving until right action arises by itself.
Hold fast to the diary from today on! Write regularly! Don't surrender! Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it every moment.
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