"Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave."

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And government (to define it de facto, or according to modern prudence) is an art whereby some man, or some few men, subject a city or a nation, and rule it according to his or their private interest; which, because the laws in such cases are made according to the interest of a man, or of some few families, may be said to be the empire of men, and not of laws.

— James Harrington