If mankind were to resolve to agree in no institution of government, until every part of it had been adjusted to the most exact standard of perfection, society would soon become a general scene of anarchy, and the world a desert.

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.

Von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship." Goethe: The Collected Works, edited and translated by Eric A. Blackall. Vol. 9, Princeton University Press, 1995, bk. 7, ch. 5.

Burke, Edmund. "Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009.