The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of duties.
Edmund Burke: “The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of duties.”
Editor's note · Context
In his reflections on the French Revolution, Burke warns against the dangers of conflating distinct societal roles and responsibilities.
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Always acting as if in the presence of canonized forefathers, the spirit of freedom, leading in itself to misrule and excess, is tempered with an awful gravity.
But an absurd theory on one side of a question forms no justification for alleging a false fact or promulgating mischievous maxims on the other.
They have little regard to the obvious consequences of their doctrine, though they may see that it leaves positive authority in very few of the positive institutions of this country.
They look upon the legal hereditary succession of their crown as among their rights, not as among their wrongs,--as a benefit, not as a grievance,--as a security for their liberty, not as a badge of servitude.





