But what is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint. Those who know what virtuous liberty is, cannot bear to see it disgraced by incapable heads, on account of their having high-sounding words in their mouths.

Macaulay recorded in his diary: "I have now finiEdmund Burked reading again most of Burke's works. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of liberty the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship freedom they will turn their faces towards you. He graduated in 1748.

Edmund Burke PC (12 January [NS] 1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Irish statesman author orator political theorist and philosopher who after moving to England served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party. Since the 20th century he has generally been viewed as the philosophical founder of modern conservatism. Burke was praised by both conservatives and liberals in the 19th century.