Quote#Freedom
I could show, that the same faction has, in one reign, promoted…
Quote byEdmund Burke · 1729–1797
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: A Vindication of Natural Society (1756).
English (original)
I could show, that the same faction has, in one reign, promoted popular seditions, and, in the next, been a patron of tyranny; I could show, that they have all of them betrayed the public safety at all times, and have very frequently with equal perfidy made a market of their own cause, and their own associates.
— Edmund Burke
More from Edmund Burke
In vain you tell me that artificial government is good, but that I fall out only with the abuse. The thing! the thing itself is the abuse!
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I need not excuse myself to your Lordship, nor, I think, to any honest man, for the zeal I have shown in this cause; for it is an honest zeal, and in a good cause. I have defended natural religion against a confederacy of atheists and …
Parties in religion and politics make sufficient discoveries concerning each other, to give a sober man a proper caution against them all.
The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up any of their own.
These few have the passions of the one; and they unite to strengthen themselves, and to secure the gratification of their lawless passions at the expense of the general good.