A brave people will certainly prefer liberty, accompanied by virtuous poverty, to a depraved and wealthy servitude.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Quotations about:
servitude
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Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.
[Namque pauci libertatem, pars magna iustos dominos volunt.]
Sallust (c. 86-35 BC) Roman historian and politician [Gaius Sallustius Crispus]
Histories, 4.69.18
Alt. trans.:
- "Few men desire freedom, the greater part desire just masters."
- "Only a few prefer liberty, the majority seek nothing more than fair masters."
It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.
John Philpot Curran (1750-1817) Irish lawyer and politician
Speech before Privy Council, Dublin (10 Jul 1790)
On the right of election of the Lord Mayor of Dublin. Commonly paraphrased: "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
