Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: “Through that diversity of members and interests, general liberty had as many securities as there were separate views in…”

On the record
Through that diversity of members and interests, general liberty had as many securities as there were separate views in the several orders; whilst by pressing down the whole by the weight of a real monarchy, the separate parts would have been prevented from warping and starting from their allotted places.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke discusses how the diversity of interests in a society can protect liberty from being undermined by a monarchy.

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Jan 1, 1790

I think our happy situation owing to our Constitution,--but owing to the whole of it, and not to any part singly,--owing in a great measure to what we have left standing in our several reviews and reformations, as well as to what we have…

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Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.

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Jan 1, 1790

Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.

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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.

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