To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.

Burke, Edmund. "Reflections on the Revolution in France." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009.

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations, edited by Edwin Cannan. The Modern Library, bk. 1, ch. 11, pt. 2.

Hamilton, Alexander. "No. 15: Its great defect: can only legislate for states.--Hamilton." The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States, edited by Robert Scigliano. The Modern Library, 2001.

Pascal, Blaise. "Pensées." Pensées and Other Writings, edited by Anthony Levi, translated by Honor Levi. Oxford University Press, 2008, no. 277.