Two quotes from the Columbia Dictionary of Quotations via Quantonics earlier this year …
Theodore Roosevelt in 1917 (after Victoria – I know) “The things that will destroy [us] are: prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first ….”
Walter Bagehot in 1872 “The whole history of civilisation is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards. A bureaucracy is sure to think that its duty is to augment official power, official business, or official members, rather than to leave free the energies of mankind; it overdoes the quantity of government, as well as impairs its quality. The truth is, that a skilled bureaucracy . . . is, though it boasts of an appearance of science, quite inconsistent with the true principles of the art of business.”