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
What this quote means
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.
Themes
CompromiseGovernmentSocietyNegotiationVirtueCollaboration
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote at a political debate to highlight the importance of reaching across the aisle for effective governance.
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
It is a curve each of them feels, unmistakably. It is the parabola. They must have guessed, once or twice - guessed and refused to believe - that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return. Yet they do move forever under it, reserved for its own black-and-white bad news certainly as if it were the rainbow, and they its children...
Thomas PynchonRead
There is a close relationship between flowers and convicts. The fragility and delicacy of the former are of the same nature as the brutal insensitivity of the latter.
Jean GenetRead
The United States does not have a monopoly on crazy people. It's not the only country that has psychosis. And yet we kill each other in these mass shootings at rates that are exponentially higher than anyone else. Well, what's the difference? The difference is that these guys can stack up a bunch of ammunition in their houses, and that's sort of par for the course.
Barack ObamaRead
The future belongs to God, and it is only he who reveals it, under extraordinary circumstances.
Paulo CoelhoRead
It is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don't. Rather than rely on race, we use our criminal justice system to label people of color 'criminals' and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind.
Michelle AlexanderRead
This process is alchemy: its founder is the smith Vulcan.
ParacelsusRead