The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

‘Thoughts and Details on Scarcity’ (1800)
To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the
past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part
of mankind.
‘Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents’ (1770) p. 4
I am not one of those who think that the people are never in the wrong. They have been so,
frequently and outrageously, both in other countries and in this. But I do say, that in all disputes
between them and their rulers, the presumption is at least upon a par in favour of the people.
‘Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents’ (1770) p. 7
The power of the crown, almost dead and rotten as Prerogative, has grown up anew, with much
more strength, and far less odium, under the name of Influence.
‘Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents’ (1770) p. 10
We must soften into a credulity below the milkiness of infancy to think all men virtuous. We
must be tainted with a malignity truly diabolical, to believe all the world to be equally wicked
and corrupt.
‘Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents’ (1770) p. 30
When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied
sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
‘Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents’ (1770) p. 71
Of this stamp is the cant of Not men, but measures; a sort of charm by which many people get
loose from every honourable engagement.
‘Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents’ (1770) p. 75
It is therefore our business carefully to cultivate in our minds, to rear to the most perfect vigour
and maturity, every sort of generous and honest feeling that belongs to our nature. To bring the
dispositions that are lovely in private life into the service and conduct of the commonwealth; so
to be patriots, as not to forget we are gentlemen.
‘Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents’ (1770) p. 77
Laws, like houses, lean on one another.
‘A Tract on the Popery Laws’ (planned c.1765) ch. 3, pt. 1 in ‘The Works’ vol. 5 (1812)
In all forms of Government the people is the true legislator.
‘A Tract on the Popery Laws’ ch. 3, pt. 1 in ‘The Works’ vol. 5 (1812)
People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be
enemies to laws; and those, who have much to hope and nothing to lose, will always be
dangerous, more or less.
Letter to Charles James Fox, 8 October 1777, in ‘The Correspondence of Edmund Burke’ vol. 3 (1961)
The silent touches of time.
Letter to William Smith, 29 January 1795, in ‘The Correspondence of Edmund Burke’ vol. 8 (1969)
Somebody has said, that a king may make a nobleman but he cannot make a gentleman.
Letter to William Smith, 29 January 1795, in ‘The Correspondence of Edmund Burke’ vol. 8 (1969)
His virtues were his arts.