Edmund Burke: “Why should it ever have been supposed that we are actuated by revenge?”

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.

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

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.

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