Edmund Burke: “The age unquestionably produces (whether in a greater or less number than former times I know not) daring profligates…”

Their trust for the future preservation of the Constitution was not in future revolutions.

Who could doubt but that, at any expense to the state, of which they understood nothing, they must pursue their private interests, which they understood but too well?

The speculative line of demarcation, where obedience ought to end and resistance must begin, is faint, obscure, and not easily definable.

This idea of a liberal descent inspires us with a sense of habitual native dignity, which prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably adhering to and disgracing those who are the first acquirers of any distinction.