Geburtstag: 12. Januar 1729
Todesdatum: 9. Juli 1797
Andere Namen: ਐਡਮੰਡ ਬਰਕੀ, Эдмунд Берк
Edmund Burke war ein irisch-britischer Schriftsteller, Staatsphilosoph und Politiker in der Zeit der Aufklärung. Er gilt als geistiger Vater des Konservatismus.
— Edmund Burke
Betrachtungen über die Französische Revolution
"People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors." - Reflections on the Revolution in France. 2nd edition. London 1790, p. 47-48 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=Vn0OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA247
— Edmund Burke
Betrachtungen über die Französische Revolution
"A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman." - Reflections on the Revolution in France. 2nd edition. London 1790, p. 231 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=Vn0OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA231
— Edmund Burke
Betrachtungen über die französische Revolution, nach dem Englischen des Herrn Burke von Friedrich von Gentz. Stuttgart und Leipzig 1836, S. 237 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=aisIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA237
"Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society." - Reflections on the Revolution in France. 2nd edition. London 1790, p. 205 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=Vn0OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA205
— Edmund Burke
Reden, 1775
"It looks to me to be narrow and pedantic to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal justice to this great public contest. I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people." - On Conciliation with America. House of Commons, March 22, 1775
— Edmund Burke
Zweifelhaft, letzter Zwischentitel im Hollywood-Film "Tränen der Sonne" (2003), imdb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314353/quotes
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - :en:Edmund Burke#Disputed
— Edmund Burke
Betrachtungen über die französische Revolution, Frankfurt am Main 1967, S. 163
— Edmund Burke
Reden, 1784
"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion." - Speech at a County Meeting of Buckinghamshire 1784
— Edmund Burke
Betrachtungen über die Französische Revolution
"We know, and it is our pride to know, that man is by his constitution a religious animal;" - Reflections on the Revolution in France. 2nd edition. London 1790, p. 135 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=Vn0OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA135
— Edmund Burke
Betrachtungen über die französische Revolution, nach dem Englischen des Herrn Burke von Friedrich von Gentz. Stuttgart und Leipzig 1836, S. 174 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=aisIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA174
"[...] homage to the institutor, and author and protector of civil society ; without which civil society man could not by any possibility arrive at the perfection of which his nature is capable, [...]" - Reflections on the Revolution in France. 2nd edition. London 1790, p. 146 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=Vn0OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA146
— Edmund Burke
Betrachtungen über die Französische Revolution
"Wenn Unterthanen Rebellen aus Grundsätzen seyn wollen, so werden Könige aus Staatsklugheit Tyrannen seyn." - Betrachtungen über die französische Revolution, nach dem Englischen des Herrn Burke von Friedrich von Gentz. Stuttgart und Leipzig 1836, S. 142 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=aisIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA142
"Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle." - Reflections on the Revolution in France. p. 116 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=Vn0OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA116&dq=tyrants
— Edmund Burke
Disputed, This is probably the most quoted statement attributed to Burke, and an extraordinary number of variants of it exist, but all without any definite original source. They closely resemble remarks known to have been made by the Utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill, in an address at the University of St. Andrew (1 February 1867) http://books.google.com/books?id=DFNAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA36&dq=%22Bad+men+need+nothing+more+to+compass+their+ends,+than+that+good+men+should+look+on+and+do+nothing%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RUh5U6qWBLSysQT0vYGAAw&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22Bad%20men%20need%20nothing%20more%20to%20compass%20their%20ends%2C%20than%20that%20good%20men%20should%20look%20on%20and%20do%20nothing%22&f=false : Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. The very extensively used remarks attributed to Burke might be based on a paraphrase of some of his ideas, but he is not known to have ever declared them in so succinct a manner in any of his writings. It has been suggested that they may have been adapted from these lines of Burke's in his Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/LFBooks/Burke0061/SelectWorks/HTMLs/0005-01_Pt02_Thoughts.html (1770): "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." (see above)
:This purported quote bears a resemblance to the narrated theme of Sergei Bondarchuk's Soviet film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, produced in 1966. In it the narrator declares "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing", although since the original is in Russian various translations to English are possible. This purported quote also bears resemblance to a quote widely attributed to Plato, that said "The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." It also bears resemblance to what Albert Einstein wrote as part of his tribute to Pablo Casals: "The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it."
: More research done on this matter is available at these two links: Burkequote http://www.tartarus.org/~martin/essays/burkequote.html & Burkequote2 http://www.tartarus.org/~martin/essays/burkequote2.html — as the information at these links indicate, there are many variants of this statement, probably because there is no known original by Burke. In addition, an exhaustive examination of this quote has been done at the following link: QuoteInvestigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/12/04/good-men-do/.
— Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Context: Where popular authority is absolute and unrestrained, the people have an infinitely greater, because a far better founded, confidence in their own power. They are themselves, in a great measure, their own instruments. They are nearer to their objects. Besides, they are less under responsibility to one of the greatest controlling powers on the earth, the sense of fame and estimation. The share of infamy that is likely to fall to the lot of each individual in public acts is small indeed; the operation of opinion being in the inverse ratio to the number of those who abuse power. Their own approbation of their own acts has to them the appearance of a public judgment in their favor. A perfect democracy is, therefore, the most shameless thing in the world. As it is the most shameless, it is also the most fearless. No man apprehends in his person that he can be made subject to punishment.
— Edmund Burke, buch Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents
Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770), Context: The power of discretionary disqualification by one law of Parliament, and the necessity of paying every debt of the Civil List by another law of Parliament, if suffered to pass unnoticed, must establish such a fund of rewards and terrors as will make Parliament the best appendage and support of arbitrary power that ever was invented by the wit of man. This is felt. The quarrel is begun between the Representatives and the People. The Court Faction have at length committed them. In such a strait the wisest may well be perplexed, and the boldest staggered. The circumstances are in a great measure new. We have hardly any land-marks from the wisdom of our ancestors, to guide us. At best we can only follow the spirit of their proceeding in other cases.
Volume i, p. 516
