_“There is an organic logic, an instinctive and dream-sure logic of all existence, as opposed to the logic of the inorganic, the logic of understanding and of things understood--a logic of direction as opposed to a logic of extension.”_

OSWALD SPENGLER, “Decline of the West.”

_“If the cause of the happiness of this country (America) was examined into, it would be found to arise as much from the great plenty of land in proportion to the inhabitants, as from the wisdom of their political institutions.”_

ALBERT GALLATIN, in the Congressional Debate on The Land Bill of 1796.

_“Why is it that in Europe those who call themselves Democrats always stand for the people, or at any rate always rely on the people, while our democrat is often an aristocrat, nearly always supports that which oppresses the power of the people, and ends by becoming a despot?”_

FEODOR DOSTOEVSKY, commenting on the Pushkin Address, 1881.