"Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is repaid in flattery."

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What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot to-day? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and Godspeed, to the right, as it goes by them.

— Henry David Thoreau