A great empire and little minds go ill together.
Edmund BurkeRead
My vigour relents. I pardon something to the spirit of liberty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects a balance between personal freedom and the constraints of societal order.
Edmund Burke's quote suggests a moment of concession in the struggle for liberty, acknowledging that while it is crucial to uphold freedom, there are times when one must temper that pursuit in the name of practical governance and social order. It reveals the complexity of liberating ideals against the backdrop of real-world implications.
Themes
LibertyFreedomGovernanceConcessionBalance
In practice
Example use cases
During a political debate on civil rights, one may use this quote to highlight the tension between liberty and order.
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
Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.
Edmund BurkeRead
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Edmund BurkeRead
Similar quotes
There are many different ways to be poor in the world but increasingly there seems to be one single way to be rich.
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieRead
Why is it that all men who are outstanding in philosophy, poetry or the arts are melancholic?
AristotleRead
Dead battles, like dead generals, hold the military mind in their dead grip.
Barbara TuchmanRead
The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.
Henry Ward BeecherRead
That God does not exist, I cannot deny, That my whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
But Paris was a very old city and we were young and nothing was simple there.
Ernest HemingwayRead