The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations. – Edmund Burke
There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity – the law of nature and of nations. – Edmund Burke
It is hard to say whether doctors of law or divinity have made the greater advances in the lucrative business of mystery. – Edmund Burke
Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all. – Edmund Burke
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites…
Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. – Edmund Burke