Adversity employs great talents; prosperity renders them useless and carries the inept, the corrupted wealthy and the wicked to the top
May they bear in mind that virtue often contains the seeds of tyranny
May they bear in mind that it is neither gold nor even a multitude of arms that sustains a state but its morals
May each of them keep in his house, in a corner of this field, next to his workbench, next to his plow, his gun, his sword, and his bayonet
May they all be soldiers
May they bear in mind that in circumstances where deliberation is possible, the advice of old men is good but that in moments of crisis youth is generally better informed that its elders
Denis Diderot
Apostrophe to the Insurgents, 1782