If he is not everything in the command of an army, he is nothing.
Edmund Burke: “If he is not everything in the command of an army, he is nothing.”
Editor's note · Context
In his critique of the French Revolution, he asserts the necessity of absolute authority for effective military leadership.
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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.
The ceremony of cashiering kings, of which these gentlemen talk so much at their ease, can rarely, if ever, be performed without force.
An irregular, convulsive movement may be necessary to throw off an irregular, convulsive disease.
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.





