Edmund Burke on liberty

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.

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

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.

• War & Peace

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

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

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

Benjamin Franklin1706–1790