Whilst freedom is true to itself, everything becomes subject to it, and its very adversaries are an instrument in its hands.
Edmund Burke: “Whilst freedom is true to itself, everything becomes subject to it, and its very adversaries are an instrument in its…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke emphasizes the power of freedom to transform adversities into tools for its own advancement.
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But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.
Not being illuminated with the light of which the gentlemen of France tell us they have got so abundant a share, they acted under a strong impression of the ignorance and fallibility of mankind.





