Edmund Burke: “Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one…”

Our people will find employment enough for a truly patriotic, free, and independent spirit, in guarding what they possess from violation.

But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.

If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.

They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.