I decided to track this down because, you know, the whole rhetorical category of ethos is some (if small) comfort in these times of Liberal woe. John Stuart Mill wrote in March 1866 to Conservative MP Sir John Pakington

I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative.

On the other hand, I’m starting to wonder if I’m terribly mistaken, that maybe the Rapture is nearly upon us, that it is being devoutly and piously hastened by America’s elected officials through war in the Middle East, and that living in these End Times isn’t best done with a  user’s manual  close at hand.

(In case it’s not clear: : P)