It is the love of the [British] people; it is their attachment to their government, from the sense of the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, which gives you both your army and your navy, and infuses into both that liberal obedience, without which your army would be a base rabble, and your navy nothing but rotten timber.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Loyalty to a shared institution creates disciplined forces.
- In plain terms
- When people care about their government, they obey willingly.
- What can you take from it?
- Build trust in institutions to ensure cooperation.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What creates genuine loyalty?
- When does obedience become blind?
Another view
It overlooks how loyalty can be exploited for oppression.
More from Edmund Burke
Deny them [the colonies] this participation of freedom, and you break that sole bond, which originally made, and must still preserve the unity of the empire.
Permalink to quote #79 Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
Permalink to quote #81 Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every soil.
Permalink to quote #78
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