“For in this very thing lies the difference between freemen and those that are not free. In a free country every man thinks he has a concern in all public matters; that he has a right to form and a right to deliver an opinion upon them. They sift, examine, and discuss them. They are curious, eager, attentive, and jealous; and by making such matters the daily subjects of their thoughts and discoveries, vast numbers contract a very tolerable knowledge of them, and some a very considerable one. And this it is that fills free countries with men of ability in all stations. Whereas, in other countries, none but men whose office calls them to it having much, care or thought about public affairs, and not daring to try the force of their opinions with one another, ability of this sort is extremely rare in any station of life.”—British statesman Edmund Burke (1729-1797), letter to a member of the Bell Club, Bristol, England, Oct. 31, 1777, from Letters Of Edmund Burke: A Selection, edited With An Introduction by Harold J. Laski (1922)
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