Tao Te Ching

“Whenever you deliberate on the business of the state, you distrust and dislike men of superior intelligence and cultivate instead the most depraved of the orators who come before you; you prefer those who are witless to those who are wise, those who dole out the public money to those who perform public services at their own expense.”

— Isocrates Ἰσοκράτης 436 – 338 BCE
from Areopagiticus