In every arduous enterprise, we consider what we are to lose, as well as what we are to gain; and the more and better stake of liberty every people possess, the less they will hazard in a vain attempt to make it more.
Burke highlights the importance of weighing potential losses against gains in the pursuit of liberty.
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More from Edmund Burke
Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.
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.
Those who are servants in name, as well as in effect, do not like to be told of their situation, their duty, and their obligations.
Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.
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