Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “The weaker he is in the fund of motives which apply to our avarice, to our laziness, and to our lassitude, if he means…”

On the record
The weaker he is in the fund of motives which apply to our avarice, to our laziness, and to our lassitude, if he means to carry the war to any end at all, the stronger he ought to be in his addresses to our magnanimity and to our reason.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke argues that a leader must appeal to nobler motives rather than base desires to achieve meaningful goals.

Share

More from Edmund Burke

Jan 1, 1790

Let us add, if we please, but let us preserve what they have left; and standing on the firm ground of the British Constitution, let us be satisfied to admire, rather than attempt to follow in their desperate flights, the aëronauts of…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation