Edmund Burke: “We have an enemy to whose virtues we can owe nothing, but on this occasion we are infinitely obliged to one of his…”

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

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

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.

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.