Pope on Partisan Strife

I agree with you in my sentiments of the state of our Nation since this change; I find myself just in the same situation of mind you describe as your own, heartily wishing the good, that is, the quiet of my Country, and hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.

–Alexander Pope, in a letter to Edward Blount, Aug. 27, 1724 in The Works of Alexander Pope, vol. 8, p. 6 (Warton ed. 1822)