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Edmund Burke on Freedom

1729–1797 Ireland

← All quotes by Edmund Burke

12 quotes

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

Speech at a County Meeting of Buckinghamshire (1784)

Partial freedom seems to me the most invidious form of slavery.

Is the Party Over? (2017)

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.

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.

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

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.

All who have ever written on government are unanimous, that among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.

Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (1777)

Freedom and not servitude is the cure of anarchy; as religion, and not atheism, is the true remedy for superstition.

Deny them this participation of freedom, and you break that sole bond, which originally made, and must still preserve the unity of the empire.

Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found.

You may have made a Revolution, but not a Reformation. You may have subverted Monarchy, but not recover'd freedom.

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.

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Edmund Burke (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.