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Who really said it

A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation

Written by Edmund Burke 1729–1797 · Anglo-Irish statesman, orator and political thinker
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Burke wrote the sentence in Reflections on the Revolution in France, published in November 1790. It sits inside his argument that the English constitution reconciles a fixed hereditary rule with a power of change in an emergency, and the sentence immediately after it warns that without such means a state “might even risk the loss of that part of the Constitution which it wished the most religiously to preserve.” We confirmed the wording in two independent transcriptions of the text.

Last verified 7 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation” Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

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Provenance

The source

Work
Reflections on the Revolution in France
Published
November 1790, London
Form
A letter to the French aristocrat Charles-Jean-François Depont — the text opens “Dear Sir”
Text checked
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, vol. 3 (Project Gutenberg ebook 15679), and Wikisource

… It is far from impossible to reconcile, if we do not suffer ourselves to be entangled in the mazes of metaphysic sophistry, the use both of a fixed rule and an occasional deviation, — the sacredness of an hereditary principle of succession in our government with a power of change in its application in cases of extreme emergency. … A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation. Without such means it might even risk the loss of that part of the Constitution which it wished the most religiously to preserve. The two principles of conservation and correction operated strongly at the two critical periods of the Restoration and Revolution, when England found itself without a king. …

Wording, spelling and punctuation follow the text of Burke’s collected Works as digitised by Project Gutenberg. The ellipses mark our own elisions; nothing inside the quoted sentences has been altered.

Full text
Burke’s Works, vol. 3, at Project Gutenberg
Read the passage on Wikisource

How we verified this

Public domain

Reflections on the Revolution in France was published in November 1790 and has long been in the public domain. The collected Works edition we checked is itself a public-domain printing digitised by Project Gutenberg.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Context

Why it mattered

Burke wrote the Reflections as a letter. After the fall of the Bastille the French aristocrat Charles-Jean-François Depont asked what he made of the Revolution; Burke sent two replies, and the longer second one — drafted after he read Richard Price’s A Discourse on the Love of Our Country in January 1790 — became the book. It sold thirteen thousand copies in its first five weeks ↗.

His argument was never that change is wrong. The sentence sits inside a claim that England had twice saved its institutions — at the Restoration and at the Revolution — by repairing the damaged part rather than demolishing the whole. Coming from a man who had sided with the American colonists and spent years impeaching a governor-general of British India for corruption, the book surprised allies and opponents alike; it is also the text modern conservatism claims as its founding voice.

The two principles of conservation and correction operated strongly at the two critical periods of the Restoration and Revolution.

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Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Reflections on the Revolution in Francewikisource.org

The complete 1790 text, where the sentence appears in context.
Burke’s Works, vol. 3gutenberg.org

Project Gutenberg’s edition of the volume containing the Reflections.
Edmund Burkewikiquote.org

Sourced Burke quotations, with this line filed under the Reflections.
Reflections on the Revolution in Francewikipedia.org

Background on the pamphlet, its November 1790 publication and its reception.
Edmund Burkewikipedia.org

Biography of the statesman and political thinker.

The author

About Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke

1729–1797 · Anglo-Irish statesman, orator and political thinker

Edmund Burke was an Anglo-Irish politician and philosopher who sat for many years in the British House of Commons as a Whig. He championed liberal causes, sided with the American colonists, and spent years pressing the impeachment of the governor-general of British India for corruption — which is why the ferocity of his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) surprised allies and opponents alike. The same book made him the writer modern conservatism claims as its founding voice.

For writers & researchers

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The primary source (Chicago)

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (London, 1790); text checked in The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, vol. 3 (Project Gutenberg ebook 15679).

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