An Inability To Stay Quiet Is One

War Both Needs And Generates Certain Virtues; Not The Highest, But What May Be Called The Preliminary Virtues, As Valor, Veracity, The Spirit Of Obedience, The Habit Of Discipline. Any Of These, And Of Others Like Them, When Possessed By A Nation, And No Matter How Generated, Will Give Them A Military Advantage, And Make Them More Likely To Stay In The Race Of Nations.

Under A Presidential Government, A Nation Has, Except At The Electing Moment, No Influence; It Has Not The Ballot-box Before It; Its Virtue Is Gone, And It Must Wait Till Its Instant Of Despotism Again Returns.

The Apparent Rulers Of The English Nation Are Like The Most Imposing Personages Of The A Splendid Procession; It Is By Them That The Mob Are Influenced; It Is They Who The Inspectors Cheer. The Real Rulers Are Secreted In Second Hand Carriages; No One Cares For Them Or Asks About Them, But They Are Obeyed Implicitly And Unconsciously By Reason Of The Splendour Of Those Who Eclipsed And Preceded Them.

Public Opinion Is A Permeating Influence, And It Exacts Obedience To Itself; It Requires Us To Drink Other Men's Thoughts, To Speak Other Men's Words, To Follow Other Men's Habits.

Royalty Is A Government In Which The Attention Of The Nation Is Concentrated On One Person Doing Interesting Actions.