Reformation. Scotland is the only kingdom in which the change was accomplished in spite of the crown. Ireland the only country where it was prevented… - John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton

Increase of freedom in the state may sometimes promote mediocrity, and give vitality to prejudice; it may even retard useful legislation, diminish the capacity for war, and restrict the boundaries of Empire...A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved. It is better to be the citizen of a humble commonwealth in the Alps, without a prospect of influence beyond the narrow frontier, than a subject of a superb autocracy that overshadows half of Asia and of Europe.

History is not a web woven with innocent hands. Among all the causes which degrade and demoralize men, power is the most constant and the most active.

[W]e are not so much concerned this evening with the dead letter of edicts and of statutes as with the living thoughts of men.