Quote #43

'War,' says Machiavel, 'ought to be the only study of a prince;' and by a prince he means every sort of state, however constituted. 'He ought,' says this great political doctor, 'to consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes ability to execute military plans.' A meditation on the conduct of political societies made old Hobbes imagine that war was the state of nature.

More from Edmund Burke

  1. The art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.
  2. A good parson once said that where mystery begins religion ends. Cannot I say, as truly at least, of human laws, that where mystery begins,…
  3. When Croft's 'Life of Dr. Young' was spoken of as a good imitation of Dr. Johnson's style, 'No, no,' said he, 'it is not a good imitation o…
  4. The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up any of their own.
  5. A very great part of the mischiefs that vex the world arises from words.
  6. The first and the simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind is Curiosity.
  7. Turn over a new leaf.
  8. The person who grieves, suffers his passion to grow upon him; he indulges it, he loves it; but this never happens in the case of actual pai…

All Edmund Burke quotes