Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India-rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
 

– Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” [1849]