Vice incapacitates a man from all public duty; it withers the powers of his under- standing, and makes his mind paralytic.
Edmund BurkeSociety is indeed a contract. ... It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection.
Edmund BurkeA disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.
Edmund BurkePrejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, skeptical, puzzled and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man's virtue his habit; and not a series of unconnected acts. Through past prejudice, his duty becomes part of his nature.
Edmund Burke