1790 in History

Charles Lamb

Cultivate simplicity or rather should I say banish elaborateness, for simplicity springs spontaneous from the heart.

Charles Lamb (Letter to Mr. Coleridge, 1790)

Edmund Burke

People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

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

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

To drive men from independence to live on alms, is itself great cruelty.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

Make the Revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

By hating vices too much, they come to love men too little.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

The most important of all revolutions, a revolution in sentiments, manners and moral opinions.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

There is no safety for honest men but by believing all possible evil of evil men.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

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 (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

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 (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

Good order is the foundation of all things.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

Edmund Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)

James Madison

Nothing is so contagious as opinion, especially on questions which, being susceptible of very different glosses, beget in the mind a distrust of itself.

James Madison (Letter to Benjamin Rush, 1790)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Torquato Tasso, 1790)

Is it so big a mystery
what god and man and world are?
No! but nobody knows how to solve it
so the mystery hangs on.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Venetian Epigrams, 1790)

The day of fortune is like a harvest day, We must be busy when the corn is ripe.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Torquato Tasso, 1790)

Fortune rarely accompanies anyone to the door.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Torquato Tasso, 1790)

John Adams

A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man.

John Adams (Discourses on Davila, 1790)

The world grows more enlightened. Knowledge is more equally diffused. 

John Adams (Discourses on Davila, 1790)

Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist.

John Adams (Discourses on Davila, 1790)