Edmund Burke & Modern Conservatism

Edmund Burke is considered the Philosophical founder of Modern Conservatism.

BioData:

• Full Name: Edmund Burke
• Dob: 12 January 1730
• PoB: Dublin, Ireland
• Education: Trinity College, Dublin
• Occupation: author, orator, political theorist, philosopher
• Civil Status: Married to Jane Mary Nugent
• Children: Richard Burke Jr
• Political Background:  Member of Parliament (MP) 1766 – 1794 Died: 9 July 1797 (68)

Edmund was born in Dublin to Richard Burke, a wealthy solicitor, who was a practising Anglican of the Church of Ireland, the faith Edmund was raised.  His mother, Mary was a Roman Catholic who came from an impoverised but genteel family.

Though Edmund at no time denied his Irish roots, he  often described himself as  an Englishman.

Edmund was only 19 when he wrote  A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.  It was deemed an important work that eminent thinkers in the Continent such as Denis Diderot and Immanuel Kant paid attention.

For many years later, Edmund Burke was a Member of the Parliament.

Did you know?

The term “bite the hand that feeds you” which means total ingratitude, is attributed to Edmund Burke. He was apparently the one who coined the phrase, when he wrote:

“And having looked to government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them.”

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Below are some of the many notable quotes from Edmund Burke:

A good parson once said that where mystery begins religion ends. I say, as truly at least, of human laws, that where mystery begins justice ends?
– Edmund Burke
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All government,—indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act,—is founded on compromise and barter.
– Burke
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Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.
– Edmund Burke
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Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty.
– Edmund Burke
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Custom reconciles us to everything.
– Edmund Burke
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Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.
~Edmund Burke
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Fiction lags after truth, invention is unfruitful, and imagination cold and barren.
– Burke
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I am convinced that we have a degree of delight, and that no small one, in the real misfortunes and pains of others.
– Burke
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Laws, like houses, lean on one another.
– Edmund Burke
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No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
– Edmund Burke
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No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasonig as fear.
– Edmund Burke
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‘‘ Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.’’
– Edmund Burke
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Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.
– Edmund Burke
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The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind is curiosity.
– Edmund Burke
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The march of the human mind is slow.
– Burke
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There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
– Burke
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To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
– Edmund Burke
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You can never plan the future by the past.
~Edmund Burke