Edmund Burke: “But commonwealths are not physical, but moral essences.”

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.

Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.

Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.

The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.