Men who undertake considerable things, even in a regular way, ought to give us ground to presume ability. - Edmund Burke

It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the publick to be the most anxious for its welfare.

Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field.

[t]he science of constructing a commonwealth, or renovating it, or refining it, is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught a priori. Nor is it a short experience that can instruct us in that practical science, because the real effects of moral causes are not always immediate; but that which in the first instance is prejudicial may be excellent in its remoter operation, and its excellence may arise even from the ill effects it produces in the beginning.