Edmund Burke: “Much the strongest moral obligations are such as were never the results of our option.”

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

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.

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

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