A great empire and little minds go ill together.
Edmund BurkeRead
I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the impossibility of holding an entire population accountable for the actions of a few.
Edmund Burke's quote highlights the challenge and moral dilemma of blaming or punishing an entire group for the actions of some individuals within that group. It suggests that collective guilt is unjust and that each person should be judged on their own merits and actions, rather than being condemned as part of a larger entity.
In practice
In a discussion on social justice, citing this quote can emphasize the importance of individual accountability.
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.
Bless the Maker and His water. Bless the coming and going of Him. May His passage cleanse the world. May He keep the world for His people.
Morality is of the highest importance - but for us, not for God.
No unemployment insurance can be compared to an alliance between a man and a plot of land.
There is no doubt that healthy-mindedness is inadequate as a philosophical doctrine, because the evil facts which it refuses positively to account for are a genuine portion of reality; and they may after all be the best key to life's significance, and possibly the only openers of our eyes to the deepest levels of truth.
It seemed that rebellion must have an unassailable base, something guarded not merely from attack, but from the fear of it: such a base as we had in the Red Sea Parts, the desert, or in the minds of the men we converted to our creed.
I think that we are starting to get much more conscious about, you know, the importance of the spiritual path, and we are fulfilling it by paying attention to ourselves.
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