“If revenues are available, one should not do what popular leaders today do—make a free distribution of the surplus (When people get it, they want the same again: this sort of assistance to the poor is like the proverbial jug with a hole in it). For the duty of the true democrat is to see that the population is not destitute; for destitution is the cause of a corrupt democracy.” - Aristotle, Politics, Bk. VI, c.334-23 b.c.
“As I said, this is a great question, affecting the honor and duty of a strong, and, I hope, a proud people, and sharp dealings are out of place in considering our national credit. The credit of a nation must never die or fail; it must be perpetual, and no decision can ever be adopted that contemplates its decay. A discredited man! Who can fail to recognize his misery as he walks among his fellows, down-cast and broken, bereft of that which should be ‘the immediate jewel of his soul’; and shall this grand confederation of republics become in the family of nations a discredited member, a pitiable object, crowned with the ashes of repudiated faith?” - Thomas F. Bayard, speech in the Senate, December 13, 1877.