Liberty, if I understand it at all, is a general principle, and the clear right of all the subjects within the realm, or of none. Partial freedom seems to me a most invidious mode of slavery. But, unfortunately, it is the kind of slavery the most easily admitted in times of civil discord: for parties are but too apt to forget their own future safety in their desire of sacrificing their enemies. People without much difficulty admit the entrance of that injustice of which they are not to be the immediate victims. In times of high proceeding it is never the faction of the predominant power that is in danger: for no tyranny chastises its own instruments.
Edmund Burke, “A Letter to John Farr and John Harris, Esquires, Sheriffs of the City of Bristol, on Affairs of America” (April 3, 1777), in Writings and speeches (Little, Brown and Company, 1901), page 198.
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Edmund Burke
