The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please; we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulat… - Edmund Burke

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

​To secure any degree of sobriety in the propositions made by the leaders in any public assembly, they ought to respect, in some degree perhaps to fear, those whom they conduct. To be led any otherwise than blindly, the followers must be qualified, if not for actors, at least for judges; they must also be judges of natural weight and authority. Nothing can secure a steady and moderate conduct in such assemblies, but that the body of them should be respectably composed, in point of condition in life, of permanent property, of education, and of such habits as enlarge and liberalize the understanding.

All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.