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1
A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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2
A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.
Edmund Burke
Politicians and Politics
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3
A nation is not conquered which is perpetually to be conquered.
Edmund Burke
Nation
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4
A people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood.
Edmund Burke
United States of America
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5
A populace never rebels from passion for attack, but from impatience of suffering.
Edmund Burke
Rebellion
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6
A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
Edmund Burke
Change
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7
All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.
Edmund Burke
Compromise
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8
Ambition can creep as well as soar.
Edmund Burke
Ambition
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9
Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.
Edmund Burke
Corruption
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10
An event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak, and impossible to be silent.
Edmund Burke
Scandal
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11
And having looked to government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them. To avoid that evil, government will redouble the causes of it; and then it will become inveterate and incurable.
Edmund Burke
Welfare
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12
Applaud us when we run, Console us when we fall, Cheer us when we recover.
Edmund Burke
Praise
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13
Bad laws are the worst form of tyranny.
Edmund Burke
Law and Lawyers
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14
But a good patriot, and a true politician, always considers how he shall make the most of the existing materials of his country. A disposition, to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman. Everything else is vulgar in the conception, perilous in the execution.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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15
By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.
Edmund Burke
Perseverance
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16
Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinions high respect; their business unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasure, his satisfactions, to theirs,and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But his unbiased opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure,no, nor from the law and the Constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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17
Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.
Edmund Burke
Politicians and Politics
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18
Contempt is not a thing to be despised.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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19
Custom reconciles us to everything.
Edmund Burke
Custom
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20
Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.
Edmund Burke
Safety
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21
Education is the cheap defence of nations.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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22
Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other
Edmund Burke
Example
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23
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
Edmund Burke
Flattery
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24
Fraud and prevarication are servile vices. They sometimes grow out of the necessities, always out of the habits, of slavish and degenerate spirits. It is an erect countenance, it is a firm adherence to principle, it is a power of resisting false shame and frivolous fear, that assert our good faith and honor, and assure to us the confidence of mankind.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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25
Frugality is founded on the principal that all riches have limits.
Edmund Burke
Economy and Economics
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26
Good order is the foundation of all great things.
Edmund Burke
Order
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27
Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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28
Great men are the guideposts and landmarks in the state.
Edmund Burke
Greatness
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29
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. This amicable conflict with difficulty helps us to an intimate acquaintance with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial.
Edmund Burke
Opposition
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30
I cannot conceive how any man can have brought himself to that pitch of presumption, to consider his country as nothing but carte blanche, upon which he may scribble whatever he pleases.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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31
I did not obey your instructions. No. I conformed to the instructions of truth and Nature, and maintained your interest, against your opinions, with a constancy that became me. A representative worthy of you ought to be a person of stability. I am to look, indeed, to your opinions,but to such opinions as you and I must have five years hence. I was not to look to the flash of the day. I knew that you chose me, in my place, along with others, to be a pillar of the state, and not a weathercock on the top of the edifice, exalted for my levity and versatility, and of no use but to indicate the shiftings of every fashionable gale.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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32
I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.
Edmund Burke
Planning
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33
I know of nothing sublime which is not some modification of power.
Edmund Burke
Power
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34
I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophists, economists and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is gone forever.
Edmund Burke
Courage
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35
I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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36
If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the people think so,and that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of this matter.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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37
If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.
Edmund Burke
People
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38
If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.
Edmund Burke
Wealth
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39
If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.
Edmund Burke
Virtue
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40
In all forms of government the people is the true legislator.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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41
In doing good, we are generally cold, and languid, and sluggish; and of all things afraid of being too much in the right. But the works of malice and injustice are quite in another style. They are finished with a bold, masterly hand; touched as they are with the spirit of those vehement passions that call forth all our energies, whenever we oppress and persecute.
Edmund Burke
Malice
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42
In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature.
Edmund Burke
Law and Lawyers
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43
In the groves of their academy, at the end of every vista, you see nothing but the gallows.
Edmund Burke
Repression
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44
In the weakness of one kind of authority, and in the fluctuation of all, the officers of an army will remain for some time mutinous and full of faction, until some popular general, who understands the art of conciliating the soldiery, and who possesses the true spirit of command, shall draw the eyes of all men upon himself. Armies will obey him on his personal account. There is no other way of securing military obedience in this state of things.
Edmund Burke
Army and Navy
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45
In this choice of inheritance we have given to our frame of polity the image of a relation in blood; binding up the constitution of our country with our dearest domestic ties; adopting our fundamental laws into the bosom of our family affections; keeping inseparable and cherishing with the warmth of all their combined and mutually reflected charities, our state, our hearths, our sepulchres, and our altars.
Edmund Burke
Inheritance
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46
It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.
Edmund Burke
Complaints and Complaining
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47
It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.
Edmund Burke
Business
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48
It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.
Edmund Burke
Fact
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49
It is undoubtedly the business of ministers very much to consult the inclinations of the people, but they ought to take great care that they do not receive that inclination from the few persons who may happen to approach them.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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50
It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.
Edmund Burke
Wealth
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51
Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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52
Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.
Edmund Burke
Tyranny
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53
Laws, like houses, lean on one another.
Edmund Burke
Law and Lawyers
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54
Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.
Edmund Burke
Liberty
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55
Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
Edmund Burke
Politicians and Politics
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56
Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in.
Edmund Burke
Manners
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57
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites,in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity,in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption,in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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58
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity; in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption; in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves.
Edmund Burke
Civil and political rights
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59
Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.
Edmund Burke
Economy and Economics
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60
Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.
Edmund Burke
Doubt
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61
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
Edmund Burke
Fear
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62
Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society.
Edmund Burke
Aristocracy
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63
Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference which is, at least, half infidelity.
Edmund Burke
Religion
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64
Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.
Edmund Burke
Government
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65
Our patience will achieve more than our force.
Edmund Burke
Patience
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66
Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament.
Edmund Burke
Parliament
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67
Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.
Edmund Burke
Fame
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68
Patience will achieve more than force.
Edmund Burke
Patience
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69
People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law; and those who have must to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous.
Edmund Burke
Law and Lawyers
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70
People must be taken as they are, and we should never try make them or ourselves better by quarreling with them.
Edmund Burke
Interpersonal relationship
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71
People will not look forward to posterity who will not look backward to their ancestors.
Edmund Burke
History and Historians
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72
Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement. No sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing voice of Christian charity. The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of duties. Those who quit their proper character to assume what does not belong to them are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave and of the character they assume.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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73
Restraint and discipline and examples of virtue and justice. These are the things that form the education of the world.
Edmund Burke
Restraint
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74
Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.
Edmund Burke
Slavery
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75
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. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.
Edmund Burke
Society
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76
Spain: A whale stranded upon the coast of Europe.
Edmund Burke
Nation
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77
Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.
Edmund Burke
Superstition
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78
Taxing is an easy business. Any projector can contrive new compositions, any bungler can add to the old.
Edmund Burke
Taxes and Taxation
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79
Tell me what are the prevailing sentiments that occupy the minds of your young men, and I will tell you what is to be the character of the next generation.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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80
That the greatest security of the people, against the encroachments and usurpations of their superiors, is to keep the Spirit of Liberty constantly awake, is an undeniable truth.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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81
The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.
Edmund Burke
Youth
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82
The distinguishing part of our Constitution is its liberty. To preserve that liberty inviolate seems the particular duty and proper trust of a member of the House of Commons. But the liberty, the only liberty, I mean is a liberty connected with order: that not only exists along with order and virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them. It inheres in good and steady government, as in its substance and vital principle.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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83
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
Liberty
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84
The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.
Edmund Burke
Curiosity
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85
The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of the great.
Edmund Burke
Greatness
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86
The objects of a financier are, then, to secure an ample revenue; to impose it with judgment and equality; to employ it economically; and, when necessity obliges him to make use of credit, to secure its foundations in that instance, and for ever, by the clearness and candor of his proceedings, the exactness of his calculations, and the solidity of his funds.
Edmund Burke
Finance
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87
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Edmund Burke
Evil
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88
The people never give up their liberties, but under some delusion.
Edmund Burke
Liberty
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89
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.
Edmund Burke
Liberty
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90
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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91
The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.
Edmund Burke
Mobs
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92
The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.
Edmund Burke
Force
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93
The yielding of the weak is the concession to fear.
Edmund Burke
Weakness
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94
There is a courageous wisdom; there is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution but of fear.
Edmund Burke
Uncategorised
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95
There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
Edmund Burke
Tolerance
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96
There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity -- the law of nature and of nations.
Edmund Burke
Law and Lawyers
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97
They defend their errors as if they were defending their inheritance.
Edmund Burke
Obstinacy
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98
Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to anything but power for their relief.
Edmund Burke
Power
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99
To innovate is not to reform.
Edmund Burke
Innovation
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100
To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.
Edmund Burke
Patriotism
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