Be assured, my young friend, that there is a great deal of ruin in a nation.

Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
Letter to Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster

When Sinclair had written him, after the Battle of Saratoga (Oct 1777), "If we go on at this rate, the nation must be ruined." In The Correspondence of Sir John Sinclair, Bt (1831).