Quotation by Thomas Jefferson

[I]n Great-Britain it is said that their constitution relies on the house of commons for honesty, and the lords for wisdom; which would be a rational reliance if honesty were to be bought with money, and if wisdom were hereditary.
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), U.S. president. Notes on the State of Virginia (1787), Query 13, p. 119, ed. William Peden (1954).
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