The ignorance of the people is a bottom but for a temporary system; the interest of active men in the State is a foundation perpetual and infallible.
 Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770). copy citation

Context

“and which the distresses and the prosperity of the country equally tended to aug-ment, was an admirable substitute for a Prerogative, that, being only the offspring of antiquated prejudices, had moulded in its original stamina irresistible principles of decay and dissolution. The ignorance of the people is a bottom but for a temporary system; the interest of active men in the State is a foundation perpetual and infallible. However, some circumstances, arising, it must be confessed, in a great degree from accident, prevented the effects of this influence for a long time from breaking out in a manner capable of exciting any serious apprehensions.” source