Edmund Burke: “Men justify their acts in two ways,--by law and by precedent; the former asserts the right, the latter presumes it from…”

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 will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.

I would not exclude alteration neither; but even when I changed, it should be to preserve.

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.