On the record
An army that is obliged at all times and in all situations to decline an engagement may delay their ruin, but can never defend their country.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgAn army that is obliged at all times and in all situations to decline an engagement may delay their ruin, but can never defend their country.
Burke argues that an army that avoids engagement cannot effectively defend its country.
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It was not made to entice the smell of a mole, nuzzling and burying himself in his mother earth, as yours is.
I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.
Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.