It is a great mistake, that the desire of securing property is universal among mankind.
Edmund Burke: “It is a great mistake, that the desire of securing property is universal among mankind.”
Editor's note · Context
Burke critiques the assumption that all people universally desire to secure property, suggesting a more complex understanding of human motivation.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
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.
Let us add, if we please, but let us preserve what they have left; and standing on the firm ground of the British Constitution, let us be satisfied to admire, rather than attempt to follow in their desperate flights, the aëronauts of…
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
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.





