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Reflections on the Revolution in France

Edmund Burke

Reflections on the Revolution in France is a political pamphlet written by the Irish statesman Edmund Burke and published in November 1790. One of the best-known intellectual attacks against the French Revolution, Reflections is a defining tract of modern conservatism as well as an important contribution to international theory. Above all else, it has been one of the defining efforts of Edmund Burke's transformation of "traditionalism into a self-conscious and fully conceived political philosophy of conservatism".The pamphlet has not been easy to classify. Before seeing this work as a pamphlet, Burke wrote in the mode of a letter, invoking expectations of openness and selectivity that added a layer of meaning. Academics have had trouble identifying whether Burke, or his tract, can best be understood as "a realist or an idealist, Rationalist or a Revolutionist". Thanks to its thoroughness, rhetorical skill and literary power, it has become one of the most widely known of Burke's writings and a classic text in political theory. In the 20th century, it greatly influenced conservative and classical liberal intellectuals, who recast Burke's Whiggish arguments as a critique of communist and revolutionary-socialist programmes.

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“The effect of liberty to individuals is, that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Edmund Burke photo

“But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Edmund Burke photo

“By the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young; but, in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied tenor of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Edmund Burke photo

“Because half-a-dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that of course they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the hour.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Volume iii, p. 344
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Edmund Burke photo

“Circumstances (which with some gentlemen pass for nothing) give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing colour, and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Edmund Burke photo

“No sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing voice of Christian charity.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Edmund Burke photo

“To execute laws is a royal office; to execute orders is not to be a king. However, a political executive magistracy, though merely such, is a great trust.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Volume iii, p. 497
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

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“The wise will determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable from sensibility to oppression; the high-minded from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Edmund Burke photo

“A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Edmund Burke photo

“The body of all true religion consists, to be sure, in obedience to the will of the Sovereign of the world, in a confidence in His declarations, and in imitation of His perfections.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Edmund Burke photo

“Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Edmund Burke photo

“Learning will be cast into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Volume iii, p. 335
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Edmund Burke photo

“Whatever is supreme in a state, ought to have, as much as possible, its judicial authority so constituted as not only not to depend upon it, but in some sort to balance it.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Context: Whatever is supreme in a state, ought to have, as much as possible, its judicial authority so constituted as not only not to depend upon it, but in some sort to balance it. It ought to give a security to its justice against its power. It ought to make its judicature, as it were, something exterior to the state.

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“To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Context: There ought to be system of manners in every nation which a well-formed mind would be disposed to relish. To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.

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“Difficulty is a severe instructor, set over us by the supreme ordinance of a parental Guardian and Legislator, who knows us better than we know ourselves, as he loves us better too. Pater ipse colendi haud facilem esse viam voluit. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Volume iii, p. 453
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Edmund Burke photo

“Since the House had been prorogued in the summer much work was done in France. The French had shewn themselves the ablest architects of ruin that had hitherto existed in the world. In that very short space of time they had completely pulled down to the ground, their monarchy; their church; their nobility; their law; their revenue; their army; their navy; their commerce; their arts; and their manufactures.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Speech in the House of Commons (9 February 1790), quoted in J. C. D. Clark, 'Introduction', in Clark (ed.), Reflections on the Revolution in France: A Critical Edition (Stanford University Press, 2001), p. 66.
1790s