It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere. It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare. When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact. No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.