However, I considered that treasure rather as a possession to be secured than as a prize to be contended for.
Edmund Burke: “However, I considered that treasure rather as a possession to be secured than as a prize to be contended for.”
Editor's note · Context
From his critique of the French Revolution, Burke distinguishes between liberty as a secured inheritance and liberty as a revolutionary prize.
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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…
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.
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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