A just person stands on the side of the right with such conviction that neither the passion of a mob nor the violence of a despot can make her overstep the bounds of reason. But who will be this Phoenix of impartiality? For justice knows few so completely dedicated to her. Many praise her, but not for themselves. Others follow her until danger threatens, and then the false deny her. She pays no heed in her dealings to friendship, to power, or even to personal profit, and herein lies the danger of her disavowal. With plausible metaphysics the sly now forsake her, for they would not offend either their higher reason or the state. But a person true to herself deems such dissimulation a species of treason. Esteeming staunchness above cleverness, she finds herself wherever the truth is found, and if she changes her loyalties, it is not because of fickleness in her, but because they first changed on her.
~ Baltasar Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)