“Men are qualified for civil liberty, in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity; in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption; in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. 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. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”
– Burke, letter to François-Louis-Thibaut de Menonville, 1791
3 Comments
So true, so true. Thanks for posting this.
I came across this quote first thing in the morning, before coffee (!); it rang me like a bell. So well put, such wisdom, such clarity.
That’s Edmund Burke for you. He should be required reading for all voters.