In public, as well as in private expences, great wealth may, perhaps, frequently be admitted as an apology for great folly. - Adam Smith

There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.

The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it."

Hatred and anger are the greatest poison to the happiness of a good mind.