“Society is 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 · Political philosophy
societyjusticechange
Paraphrase or translation
Philosopher
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Edmund Burke
1729–1797 · Political philosophy · Enlightenment
Edmund Burke, born in Dublin in 1729, died in 1797, was an Irish politician in the British Parliament and a writer whose prose is his philosophy. He pressed the case of the American colonists, prosecuted the abuse of power in India, and in 1790 attacked the French Revolution in the Reflections. Society, he argues, is a partnership not only among the living but with the dead and those not yet born, in science, art, and virtue.
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Prejudice, in his revaluation, is a store of judgement ready in an emergency, engaging the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue. The word is not, in his sentence, a slur, and it is not a proof that every old habit is wise. He did not write the line that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.
That fake quotation is a standing trap. The Reflections are an argument with English admirers of the Revolution as much as with Paris. The English is his. A shortened partnership sentence is marked in this library as a shortening.
Start here
Reflections on the Revolution in France, the passages on partnership and on prejudice, in a full edition
The famous sentences are long in the original. A short extract without the Revolution he is answering becomes a mood.
Quotations
“Prejudice is of ready application in the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue.”
Edmund Burke · Political philosophy
societyvirtuemind
Well attested
“But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever.”
Edmund Burke · Political philosophy
societyvirtuepower
Well attested
“A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.”
Edmund Burke · Political philosophy
changesocietypower
Well attested
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke · Political philosophy
ethicssocietyjustice
Misattributed
Key ideas
Partnership across time
Society binds the living, the dead, and the unborn, so a generation does not own institutions as private property.
Prejudice
He praises inherited habit when it carries wisdom and is ready in an emergency, which is a revaluation of a term of abuse.
Reform without rupture
Change that preserves an inheritance is different, on his account, from a politics that starts from zero.
Major works
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
The partnership and the defence of prejudice. Not the source of the triumph-of-evil proverb.
Speech on Conciliation with America (1775)
An earlier Burke, arguing with British policy toward the colonies.
Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770)
On party and the constitution, useful against reading him as pure reaction.
Influences
Influenced
- Later conservatism
- John Stuart Mill
Common misreadings
- He wrote that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.
- Prejudice, in his praise, means bigotry has been justified.
Topic hubs
Famous lines Edmund Burke never said
Misattributed means the library does not treat the sentence as theirs. Questionable means there is a real doubt, which is not the same as a proof they never wrote it. Both are listed here.
- Misattributed
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
This sentence is not in the Reflections or Burke's other works. Related thoughts about the success of evil when good people fail to oppose it appear in various 19th-century writers, including John Stuart Mill in another form. The quotation people attribute to Burke is a later set piece. His real line about society as a partnership across generations is in this library.
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FAQ
What is the best book to start with?
Reflections on the Revolution in France, the passages on partnership and on prejudice, in a full edition The famous sentences are long in the original. A short extract without the Revolution he is answering becomes a mood.
What is the most famous quote?
This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Edmund Burke that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “Society is 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.” (Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Paraphrase or translation).
What is the most misquoted line?
The library marks this as Misattributed: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” This sentence is not in the Reflections or Burke's other works. Related thoughts about the success of evil when good people fail to oppose it appear in various 19th-century writers, including John Stuart Mill in another form. The quotation people attribute to Burke is a later set piece. His real line about society as a partnership across generations is in this library.
What is one key idea, in a sentence?
Partnership across time: Society binds the living, the dead, and the unborn, so a generation does not own institutions as private property.