Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: Ill would our ancestors at the Revolution have deserved their fame for wisdom, if they had found no security for their…

On the recordJanuary 1, 1790
Ill would our ancestors at the Revolution have deserved their fame for wisdom, if they had found no security for their freedom, but in rendering their government feeble in its operations and precarious in its tenure,--if they had been able to contrive no better remedy against arbitrary power than civil confusion.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Reflecting on the Glorious Revolution, Burke argues that the wisdom of the ancestors lay in securing freedom without resorting to a feeble government or civil confusion as remedies against arbitrary power.

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