Good order is the foundation of all things.

The line expresses a core Burkean conviction: stable social and political life depends on order—institutions, laws, and inherited practices that restrain passion and arbitrariness. Read in that spirit, “good order” is not mere tidiness but a moral and civic framework that makes liberty, prosperity, and reform possible without collapse. Burke often argued that when order is violently disrupted (as he believed happened in the French Revolution), society loses the conditions under which rights can be secured and improvements can be made prudently. The aphorism thus functions as a conservative maxim: before pursuing grand projects, ensure the basic structures of governance and social cohesion are sound.