Woman is not made to be the admiration of all, but the happiness of one. - Edmund Burke

The several species of government vie with each other in the absurdity of their constitutions, and the oppression which they make their subjects endure. Take them under what form you please, they are in effect but a despotism, and they fall, both in effect and appearance too, after a very short period, into that cruel and detestable species of tyranny; which I rather call it, because we have been educated under another form, than that this is of worse consequences to mankind. For the free governments, for the point of their space, and the moment of their duration, have felt more confusion, and committed more flagrant acts of tyranny, than the most perfect despotic governments which we have ever known. Turn your eye next to the labyrinth of the law, and the iniquity conceived in its intricate recesses. Consider the ravages committed in the bowels of all commonwealths by ambition, by avarice, envy, fraud, open injustice, and pretended friendship; vices which could draw little support from a state of nature, but which blossom and flourish in the rankness of political society. Revolve our whole discourse; add to it all those reflections which your own good understanding shall suggest, and make a strenuous effort beyond the reach of vulgar philosophy, to confess that the cause of artificial society is more defenceless even than that of artificial religion; that it is as derogatory from the honour of the Creator, as subversive of human reason, and productive of infinitely more mischief to the human race.

Quem poderia assegurar que um terno e delicado senso de honra bata com os primeiros impulsos do coração quando nenhum homem sabe qual a regra de honra em uma nação que continuamente varia o padrão da sua moeda? Nenhuma parte da vida reteria suas aquisições. Barbárie no que diz respeito à ciência e literatura, imperícia no que diz respeito às artes e manufaturas, infalivelmente sucederiam à falta de uma educação firme e um princípio resoluto; e assim a própria comunidade, em poucas gerações, desmoronaria, e, finalmente, dispersar-se-ia por todos os ventos dos céus.

The men of England — the men, I mean of light and leading in England.