Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “Man and his conscience cannot always be at war.”

On the record
Man and his conscience cannot always be at war.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke reflects on the inherent conflict between human conscience and external pressures.

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But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.

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If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.

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I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…

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