In this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of polity the image of a relation in blood; binding up the constitution of our country with our dearest domestic ties; adopting our fundamental laws into the bosom of our family affections; keeping inseparable and cherishing with the warmth of all their combined and mutually reflected charities, our state, our hearths, our sepulchres, and our altars.
Edmund BurkeThere is a wide difference between admiration and love. The sublime, which is the cause of the former, always dwells on great objects and terrible; the latter on small ones and pleasing; we submit to what we admire, but we love what submits to us: in one case we are forced, in the other, we are flattered, into compliance.
Edmund BurkeTrue religion is the foundation of society. When that is once shaken by contempt, the whole fabric cannot be stable nor lasting.
Edmund BurkeThe most favourable laws can do very little towards the happiness of people when the disposition of the ruling power is adverse to them.
Edmund BurkeA disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.
Edmund Burke