Edmund Burke Quotes

The American Revolution and Declaration of Independence, it has often been argued, were fueled by the most radical of all American political ideas.

The quarrel between the colonies and the British government seems to become more serious every day ... It may prove the most fatal blow to the authority of the metropolis.

We are awaiting the moment when the fate of the Bostonians will be decided. General Gage will need much talent and much sagacity and patience to calm the spirit of insubordination which has possessed almost all the English colonists

Between you and me, I think our affairs are in a very bad situation.; not so much from the apprehension of General Howe’s army, as from the defection of New York, Jersey and Pennsylvania.

From present appearances there is no prospect of putting the late Coercive Acts in force but by first making a conquest of the New England Provinces.

This [passing the Prohibitory Act] puts us in a complete war with America.

The gentleman asks, When were the colonies emancipated? I desire to know when they were made slaves? The profit to Great Britain from the trade of her colonies, through all its branches, is two millions a year. This is the price that America pays you for your protection;

The ministers and people of England might neither mean to be, nor be, the tyrants and oppressors which they were thought by the people of America, but whether they were as reasonable and prudent, or even as well justified in their measures of taxation, much less of coercion, as they supposed, is quite another question.

This country is little obliged to the framers and supporters of the tea tax. The Americans had almost forgot in their excess of gratitude for the repeal of the Stamp Act, any interest but that of the mother country. This temper would have continued, if not interrupted by your fruitless endeavors to tax them without their consent. I am an old man, and would advise the noble lords in office to adopt a more gentle method of governing America; proceedings like these will never meet with the wished-for success. Instead of these, pass an amnesty on all their youthful errors, clasp them once more to your fond and affectionate arms, and I will venture to affirm you will find them children worthy of their sire.

The American Revolution was, in fact, a battle against the philosophy of Locke and the English utilitarians.

The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, in time a Vergil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru.

Every good Englishman, abstracted from all regard for America, must oppose … being taxed by the British Parliament. For my own part, I am convinced that no argument … can be produced in support of this right.

The New Englanders by their canting, whining, insulting tricks have persuaded the rest of the [American] colonies that the Government [of George III] is going to make absolute slaves of them.

Always keep in mind that in separating the United States from Great Britain, it is above all their commerce we want.

Resolved, that whoever shall aid or abet, or in any manner assist, in the introduction of tea from any place whatsoever, into this colony, while it is subject, by a British Act of Parliament, to the payment of a duty, for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, he shall be deemed an enemy to the liberties of America.

Leave America, if she has taxable matter in her, to tax herself.

Before the American Revolution, the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures had slight existence. British policies assaulted the privacy of dwellings and places of business, particularly when royal revenues were at stake.

When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to us from America-- when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause … For myself I must declare and avow, that in all my reading and observation … that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion … no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the Congress at Philadelphia. I trust that it is obvious to your lordships, that all attempts to impose servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over such a mighty continental nation, must be vain, must be fatal.

The West shall be free from the British Isles.

The general temper of the People, as well here as other parts of America, is very warm. They look upon the Chastisement of Boston to be purposely vigorous, and held up by way of intimidation to all America; and in short that Boston is suffering in the Common Cause.

The government has decided that the same force would be employed in America as if the inhabitants were French or Spanish enemies

Within a year I will return from America—victorious.

A right to impose an internal tax on the colonies, without their consent for the single purpose of revenue, is denied, a right to regulate their trade without their consent is, admitted.

There is not that intimate and inseparable relation between the electors of Great-Britain, and the inhabitants of the colonies, which must inevitably involve both in the same taxation; on the contrary, not a single actual elector in England might be immediately affected by a taxation in America, imposed by a statute which would have a general operation and effect, upon the properties of the inhabitants of the colonies. The latter might be oppressed in a thousand shapes, without any sympathy, or exciting any alarm in the former.

The die is now cast. The colonies must either submit or triumph.