"A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors."

Truth

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Thematic Reflection

This quotation examines the core nature of Truth as articulated by Edmund Burke. Within historical and literary traditions, reflections on Truth provide actionable mental models, challenging individuals to evaluate personal ethics, self-discipline, and daily actions.

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About Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke was an Anglo-Irish writer, philosopher, and politician who is widely credited as the founder of the cultural and political philosophy of conservatism. Regarded as one of the most influential conservative thinkers and political writers of the 18th century, Burke spent the majority of his career in Great Britain and was elected as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1766 to 1794 in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party. His writings played a significant role in influencing public views and opinions in both Great Britain and France following the French Revolution in 1789, and he remains a major figure in modern conservative circles.

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More by Edmund Burke

"But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever."

— Edmund Burke
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"Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times, and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations - wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco."

— Edmund Burke
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"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
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"All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities."

— Edmund Burke
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More about Truth

"As a young man you don't notice at all that you were, after all, badly affected. For years afterwards, at least ten years, I kept getting these dreams, in which I had to crawl through ruined houses, along passages I could hardly get through."

— Otto Dix
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"Breathe deeply, anchor your attention in this breath, and let the storm pass. In this truth lies the bedrock of all virtue."

— David Apotheker
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"We campaigned on the fact that we were going to have to take difficult decisions because of the state of the public finances. When we got into government we discovered that actually the public finances were in an even worse state than we thought."

— Theresa May
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"Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative."

— Henry A. Kissinger
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