Soldiers, whether associates or adversaries, I held in esteem,--those who sell their permanent happiness to perishable honor, and throw themselves into the field of slaughter and battle, and hazard their lives in the hour of danger.
Burke expresses his respect for soldiers who sacrifice their happiness for honor, regardless of their allegiance.
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The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.
The people of England will not ape the fashions they have never tried, nor go back to those which they have found mischievous on trial.
But the course of succession is the healthy habit of the British Constitution.
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.
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