“A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood.”

—  Edmund Burke

Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (3 April 1777); as published in The Works of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke (1899), vol. 2, p. 206
1770s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood." by Edmund Burke?
Edmund Burke photo
Edmund Burke270
Anglo-Irish statesman 1729–1797

Related quotes

H. Havelock Ellis photo

“It is curious how there seems to be an instinctive disgust in Man for his nearest ancestors and relations. If only Darwin could conscientiously have traced man back to the Elephant or the Lion or the Antelope, how much ridicule and prejudice would have been spared to the doctrine of Evolution.”

H. Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British physician, writer, and social reformer

Impressions and Comments http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/8ells10.txt (1914)

Andrei Tarkovsky photo

“Man has, since the Enlightenment, dealt with things he should have ignored.”

Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986) Soviet and Russian film-maker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director

David Lloyd George photo

“[I believe in Oliver Cromwell] because he was a great fighting Dissenter. He was perhaps the first statesman to recognize that as soon as the Government became a democracy the Churches became directly responsible for any misgovernment. His great idea was to make Christ's law the law of the land, and any obstacle to this he ruthlessly swept away. How he would have dealt with Romish practices now! He said to the priest who babbled his Paternosters in Peterborough Cathedral, "Leave off your fooling and come down, sir." There was the man for the Ritualists (cheers)— worth a wagon-load of Bishops. How he would have dealt with the House of Lords! From the House of Commons he would have removed many a bauble, and he would have shaken his head and said, "The Lord deliver us from Joseph Chamberlain."”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech to the National Council of the Evangelical Free Churches at the City Temple, London (25 April 1899) for the 300th anniversary of Oliver Cromwell's birth, quoted in The Times (26 April 1899), p. 12.
Backbench MP

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“If you would know a man, observe how he treats a cat.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

Source: The Door Into Summer (1957), Chapter 1

Richard Wright photo

“He had lived and acted on the assumption that he was alone, and now he saw that he had not been. What he had done made others suffer. No matter how much he would long for them to forget him, they would not be able to. His family was a part of him, not only in blood, but in spirit.”

Richard Wright (1908–1960) African-American writer

Native Son (1940)

John Buchan photo

“He would listen, he said, to a great man talking, with one eye on the cat on the rug, thinking to himself how much more the cat knew than the man.”

John Buchan (1875–1940) British politician

Space (1912)
Context: Remember his mind and no other part of him lived in his new world. He said it gave him an odd sense of detachment to sit in a room among people, and to know that nothing there but himself had any relation at all to the infinite strange world of Space that flowed around them. He would listen, he said, to a great man talking, with one eye on the cat on the rug, thinking to himself how much more the cat knew than the man.

“I don't understand how any man would wish to pursue such a away of life. Causing pain, being hurt, risking death — and for what? so that a crowd of fat-bellied merchants can see blood flow.”

David Gemmell book Waylander II: In the Realm of the Wolf

Source: Drenai series, Waylander II: In the Realm of the Wolf, Ch. 2

Cassandra Clare photo

“If she kissed him, would he taste like blood or cloves or a mixture of the two?”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Quintus Curtius Rufus photo

“Prosperity can change man's nature; and seldom is any one cautious enough to resist the effects of good fortune.”
Res secundæ valent commutare naturam, et raro quisquam erga bona sua satis cautus est.

Quintus Curtius Rufus Roman historian

X, 1, 40.
Historiarum Alexandri Magni Macedonis Libri Qui Supersunt, Book X

Related topics