Edmund Burke: “The conscience of every man, and more especially of the great and powerful, is the keeper of that great seal, and knows…”

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

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