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  ...the monarchical, that and not this was expedient. Democracy is better for us, because the religious sentiment of the present time accords better with it. Born democrats, we are nowise qualified to judge of monarchy, which, to our fathers living in the monarchical idea, was also relatively right. But our institutions, though in coincidence with the spirit of the age, have not any exemption from the practical defects which have discredited other forms. Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well.   What satire on government can equal the severity of censure conveyed in the word politic, which now for ages has signified cunning, intimating that the State is a trick?
The same benign necessity and the same practical abuse appear in the parties, into which each State divides itself, of opponents and defenders of the administration of the government. Parties are also founded on instincts, and have better guides to their own humble aims than the sagacity of their leaders. They have...   Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Source: RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Politics, Essays: Second Series, in Complete Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 1, p. 300 . · Excerpt from Essays — Second Series · This quote is about law and lawyers · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

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