The Federalist Papers · Federalist No. 62 · paragraph 20

But the most deplorable effect of all is that diminution of attachment and reverence which steals into the hearts of the people, towards a political system which betrays so many marks of infirmity, and disappoints so many of their flattering hopes. No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.

Publius · Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison · 1787–1788
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