Masters Are Always And Everywhere

The Interest Of [businessmen] Is Always In Some Respects Different From, And Even Opposite To, That Of The Public ... The Proposal Of Any New Law Or Regulation Of Commerce Which Comes From This Order ... Ought Never To Be Adopted, Till After Having Been Long And Carefully Examined ... With The Most Suspicious Attention. It Comes From An Order Of Men ... Who Have Generally An Interest To Deceive And Even Oppress The Public.

Though The Principles Of The Banking Trade May Appear Somewhat Abstruse, The Practice Is Capable Of Being Reduced To Strict Rules. To Depart Upon Any Occasion From Those Rules, Is Consequence Of Some Flattering Speculation Of Extraordinary Gain, Is Almost Always Extremely Dangerous, And Frequently Fatal To The Banking Company Which Attempts It.

The Man Who Barely Abstains From Violating Either The Person, Or The Estate, Or The Reputation Of His Neighbours, Has Surely Very Little Positive Merit. He Fulfils, However, All The Rules Of What Is Peculiarly Called Justice, And Does Every Thing Which His Equals Can With Propriety Force Him To Do, Or Which They Can Punish Him For Not Doing. We May Often Fulfil All The Rules Of Justice By Sitting Still And Doing Nothing.

Man Naturally Desires, Not Only To Be Loved, But To Be Lovely; Or To Be That Thing Which Is The Natural And Proper Object Of Love.

The Man Of System, On The Contrary, Is Apt To Be Very Wise In His Own Conceit; And Is Often So Enamoured With The Supposed Beauty Of His Own Ideal Plan Of Government, That He Cannot Suffer The Smallest Deviation From Any Part Of It... He Seems To Imagine That He Can Arrange The Different Members Of A Great Society With As Much Ease As The Hand Arranges The Different Pieces Upon A Chess-board. He Does Not Consider That...in The Great Chess-board Of Human Society, Every Single Piece Has A Principle Of Motion Of Its Own, Altogether Different From That Which The Legislature Might Choose To Impress Upon It.