Selective Quotations

It has hitherto been, not an empire, but the project of an empire.... It is surely now time that our rulers should eithe realize this golden dream, in which they have been indulging themselves, perhaps, as well as the people; or, that they should awake from it themselves, and endeavour to awaken the people. If the project cannot be completed, it ought to be given up.

-Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, on the British colonies in North America

[UPDATE: I forgot to mention that I got the quotation from Uday Mehta, Liberalism and Empire, and that I'm not proposing moral equivalence of any kind]