“Hence partisanship arose and this was the beginning of great calamities. For public affairs began to be conducted more in accordance with greed and rivalry than with goodness and honor, and in private life hatred and enmity increased daily. Thus the disease took hold of private and public life at the same time.”

—Leonardo Bruni, History of the Florentine People, I.81, published ca. 1416

Even more words for our time?