Edmund Burke Quotes

Society 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.

Society is a partnership not only by those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.

A society that is all self-interest and no comradeship is not a society at all. But a society that is all comradeship and no self-interest is also not a society; it is a sect - or, on the largest scale, totalitarianism.

Society is held together by trust.

Living together is an art.

We talk about "rugged individualism" and "personal liberty." My dear friends, both of those disappeared from the earth the day the first colony of cave men held a conference around a community fire.

In an age where community involvement and partnerships with civil society are increasingly being recognized as indispensable, there is clearly a growing potential for cooperative development and renewal worldwide.

It is that fundamental belief, it is that fundamental belief, I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family. E pluribus unum. Out of many, one.

The history of American patriotism is figuring out ways that we can work together to move forward and knit together the common government.

There can be hope only for a society which acts as one big family, not as many separate ones.

For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community.

We will work with everybody for the good of New York.

Every society, all government, and every kind of civil compact therefore, is or ought to be, calculated for the general good and safety of the community.

I hope the seeds I have sown will be taken up by those who will follow me because the journey I have begun cannot be undertaken in isolation.

Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.

We have had in our nation a well-celebrated Declaration of Independence. But our success as a country will depend upon a new 'Declaration of Inter-dependence.' A belief in how much we need each other, how much we share one common destiny.

This country was founded by individuals who worked together for the common good.

England and the United States are natural allies, and should be the best of friends.

Since men are social by nature they are meant to live with others and to work for one another's welfare

I lose faith in any cooperative, commonwealth; cannot see how, after all, there will be incentives.

Where men have general rights, and are all guided, as it were, by one mind, it is certain that every individual has the less right the more the rest collectively exceed him in power

A body politic is a social compact by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good.

Justice is the great end of civil society.

When each citizen submits himself to the authority of law he does not thereby decrease his independence or freedom, but rather increases it. By recognizing that he is a part of a larger body which is banded together for a common purpose, he becomes more than an individual, he rises to a new dignity of citizenship. Instead of finding himself restricted and confined by rendering obedience to public law, he finds himself protected and defended and in the exercise of increased and increasing rights.

It is the apparent plan of nature that as one human being, so also one generation, and also one nationality learn, learn incessantly, from and with the others, until all have comprehended the difficult lesson: No nationality has been solely designated by God as the chosen people of the earth; above all we must seek the truth and cultivate the garden of the common good. Hence no nationality of Europe may separate itself sharply, and foolishly say, "With us alone, with us dwells all wisdom.