On the record
If, then, you require a renunciation of his conscience, as a preliminary to his admission to the rights of society, you annex, morally speaking, an impossible condition to it.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “If, then, you require a renunciation of his conscience, as a preliminary to his admission to the rights of society, you…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke asserts that requiring a renunciation of conscience for societal rights is an impossible moral condition.
Share
More from Edmund Burke
Jan 1, 1790
In some people I see great liberty, indeed; in many, if not in the most, an oppressive, degrading servitude.
Jan 1, 1790
To tell the people that they are relieved by the dilapidation of their public estate is a cruel and insolent imposition.
Jan 1, 1790
Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
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.
Other voices in this conversation
