As they say, you can't unring a bell.

Ignorance is of a peculiar nature; once dispelled, it is impossible to re-establish it. It is not originally a thing of itself, but is only the absence of knowledge; and though man may be kept ignorant, he cannot be made ignorant…. It has never yet been discovered how to make a man unknow his knowledge.

— Thomas Paine

It seems that more politicians than ever are able to do this.

If you want to succeed in politics, you must keep your conscience well under control.

— David Lloyd George, Lord Riddell Diary [April 23, 1919

Looks like we are there.

A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.

— James Madison, Constitutional Convention [June 29, 1787

Our government impedes enterprise with tons of paperwork, rules and regulations, and swarms of petty bureaucrats to eat out our substance.

Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. – Henry David Thoreau

Will we be the generation to see the beginning of the end of empire?

Misplaced faith in the power of military might and centralized bureaucracies to "make things right" or "bring freedom," or to foster "democracy" and "economic fulfillment" is a disorder that afflicts many Americans. It is for this reason that we are indeed happy to rearrange deck chairs in our foreign policy, enjoying the entertainment provided by doomed musicians like Stoker. We avoid the gaze and the wisdom of those who understand the design limitations of force, of centralized, authoritarian, and expensive governments –at home, or in foreign countries we covet.

— Karen Kwiatkowski, "Deck Chairs on the Titanic?" [February 6, 2007

The main reason we will not be able to rein in the government.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty.

— Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Philip Mazzei [17

To bad the government doesn't agree.

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

— James Madison, National Gazette [March 29, 17