The majority of our social institutions seem to have as object the maintenance of man in a mediocrity of ideas and emotions, which renders him best fitted to govern or be governed.
There is no man who can be by himself alone so contemptible as a body of men, and there is no body of men that can be so contemptible as the public at large.
It may be argued that every public idea, every accepted convention, is a piece of stupidity, for has it not commended itself to the greatest number?
The public is governed as it reasons. It is its right to say foolish things, as it is that of the ministers to do them.
A certain witty advocate remarked: “One would risk being disgusted if one saw politics, justice, and one’s dinner in the making.”