More from Edmund Burke
All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757), Part II Section IIThe people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
Speech at a County Meeting of Buckinghamshire (1784)
More about liberty
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to William Stephens Smith (13 November 1787). Manuscript at the Library of Congress.
Benjamin Franklin1706–1790This was first used by Franklin for the Pennsylvania Assembly in its “Reply to the Governor” (November 11, 1755) Reply to the Governor