Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: Metaphysics cannot live without definition; but Prudence is cautious how she defines.

On the record
Metaphysics cannot live without definition; but Prudence is cautious how she defines.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke discusses the cautious nature of prudence in defining concepts, contrasting it with metaphysics.

Share

More from Edmund Burke

Jan 1, 1790

But supposing they had ranked as they ought to do, and as with us they do actually, the sides of sick-beds are not the academies for forming statesmen and legislators.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

So far is it from being true that we acquired a right by the Revolution to elect our kings, that, if we had possessed it before, the English nation did at that time most solemnly renounce and abdicate it, for themselves, and for all their…

gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1790

But the course of succession is the healthy habit of the British Constitution.

gutenberg.org

Other voices in this conversation