He has, indeed, escaped with life; but he has forfeited all expectation of credit, consequence, party, and following.
Edmund Burke: “He has, indeed, escaped with life; but he has forfeited all expectation of credit, consequence, party, and following.”
Editor's note · Context
Burke reflects on the consequences of losing social standing and influence after a fall from grace.
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They look on the frame of their commonwealth, such as it stands, to be of inestimable value; and they conceive the undisturbed succession of the crown to be a pledge of the stability and perpetuity of all the other members of our…
But an absurd theory on one side of a question forms no justification for alleging a false fact or promulgating mischievous maxims on the other.
They look upon the legal hereditary succession of their crown as among their rights, not as among their wrongs,--as a benefit, not as a grievance,--as a security for their liberty, not as a badge of servitude.
This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction.





