Noun
standing army (plural standing armies)
A professional permanent army composed of full-time career soldiers, and not disbanded during times of peace.
Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. Edward Everett
A standing army is like a standing member. It's an excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure. Elbridge Gerry
The centralized state power that is peculiar to bourgeois society came into being in the period of the fall of absolutism. Two institutions are most characteristic of this state machine: bureaucracy and a standing army. Vladimir Lenin
None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important. Thomas Jefferson
Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. If we retrench the wages of the schoolmaster, we must raise those of the recruiting sergeant. Edward Everett
No man has a greater regard for the military gentlemen than I have. I admire their intrepidity, perseverance, and valour. But when once a standing army is established, in any country, the people lose their liberty. George Mason