Time, the author of that quote, Edmund Burke, was not a classical liberal but a conservative who believed that societies must maintain their traditions and that change should be evolutionary (see his disciple Russell Kirk’s Ten Conservative Principles /em>. Classical liberals believe that government should be limited to preventing force and fraud (a.k.a. the “night watchman state”). See also the “non-aggression principle”. For further reading see Mill, On Liberty and Hayek The Constitution of Liberty.
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