A great empire and little minds go ill together.
Edmund BurkeRead
Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that society tends to tolerate serious wrongdoings but is often unforgiving towards those who challenge the established norms or beliefs.
Edmund Burke's quote reflects on the nature of societal norms and the resistance to change that can be found within a community. While acts like murder, adultery, and swindling may be condemned, society often responds more harshly to revolutionary ideas or new beliefs that threaten the status quo. This highlights the difficulty of introducing new concepts or 'gospels' that aim to change the way people think or behave, indicating a deeper fear and defensiveness towards the unknown.
Themes
SocietyNew IdeasForgivenessChangeGospel
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about social reform, this quote can emphasize the challenges faced by those advocating for change.
More from Edmund Burke
All quotes βTo read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
Edmund BurkeRead
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
Edmund BurkeRead
The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.
Edmund BurkeRead
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Edmund BurkeRead
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.
Edmund BurkeRead
Similar quotes
It was something... the way a person's life picked up speed, the way a life was like a bullet aimed at one final target, impossible to slow or turn aside, and like the bullet, you were ignorant of what you were going to hit, would never know anything except the rush and the impact.
Joe HillRead
All of childhood's unanswered questions must finally be passed back to the town and answered there. Heroes and bogey men, values and dislikes, are first encountered and labeled in that early environment. In later years they change faces, places and maybe races, tactics, intensities and goals, but beneath those penetrable masks they wear forever the stocking-capped faces of childhood.
Maya AngelouRead
And if the City falls and one survives _x000D_ he shall carry the City within on the roads of exile _x000D_ he shall be the City
Zbigniew HerbertRead
Keep in mind that you are always saying "no" to something. If it isn't to the apparent and urgent things in your life, it is probably to the most fundamental, highly important things.
Stephen CoveyRead
Fame is but an inscription on a grave, and glory the melancholy blazon on a coffin lid.
Alexander SmithRead
I never wanted to be Marilyn - it just happened. Marilyn's like a veil I wear over Norma Jeane.
Marilyn MonroeRead