When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. - Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, from 1770
All government — indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act — is founded on compromise and barter. - from Second speech on Conciliation with America, 1775.
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts. from Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, 1777.
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. - from a Speech at a County Meeting of Buckinghamshire, 1784
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. - from Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790.
Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy. - from A Letter to a Noble Lord, written in 1796.
All of these are by Edmund Burke, the Irish-born Whig politician and philosopher, who lived from 1729 to 1797, and who is considered by many the father of modern conservatism.
I recognize that some may argue they are out of context. Perhaps. Except I think many who claim Burke as one of their intellectual guideposts pay too little attention to words that contradict their own political ideology. And as someone who is not a conservative in ideology, I find it useful to remember that there are valuable insights from those to whom I do not normally turn as a source of intellectual inspiration. And of Burke I remember this - he supported the American Revolution even as he condemned the excess of the French Revolution.
Make of this what you will.
Peace.