A great empire and little minds go ill together.
Edmund BurkeRead
All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.
Interpretation
Progress and cooperation in society require compromise.
Edmund Burke's quote emphasizes the foundational role that compromise plays in the functioning of government and society. He suggests that all human achievements and virtues arise from the ability to negotiate and make concessions, indicating that true benefits and enjoyment in life stem from a balance of differing perspectives and a willingness to engage in give-and-take.
In practice
Use this quote at a political debate to highlight the importance of reaching across the aisle for effective governance.
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.
The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things.
Physically, man is but an atom in space, and a pulsation in time. Spiritually, the entire outward universe receives significance from him, and the scope of his existence stretches beyond the stars.
God made the water but men made the wine.
If you follow reason far enough it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason.
They say if one understands himself, he understands all people. But I say to you, when one loves people, he learns something about himself.
A message came from my youth of vanished days, saying, 'I wait for you among the quivering of unborn May, where smiles ripen for tears and hours ache with songs unsung.' It says, 'Come to me across the worn-out track of age, through the gates of death. For dreams fade, hopes fail, the fathered fruits of the year decay, but I am the eternal truth, and you shall meet me again and again in your voyage of life from shore to shore.
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