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About this quote

What does it mean?
Check what people will do with liberty before celebrating it.
In plain terms
See how people use freedom before praising it.
What can you take from it?
Evaluate actions enabled by liberty before celebrating.

Where it applies

  • policy making
  • civil rights debates

Putting it to work

  • assess impacts of new laws

Questions to consider

  • What will freedom lead to?
  • Should we fear liberty?

Another view

People might not do what is expected.

More from Edmund Burke

  1. The body of all true religion consists, to be sure, in obedience to the will of the Sovereign of the world, in a confidence in His declarations, and in imitati…

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  2. The men of England - the men, I mean of light and leading in England.

    Permalink to quote #135
  3. Some decent regulated pre-eminence, some preference (not exclusive appropriation) given to birth, is neither unnatural, nor unjust, nor impolite.

    Permalink to quote #132

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