Statists and Politicians, unto whom Ragione di Stato is the first Considerable, as though it were their business to deceive the people, as a Maxim, do hold, that truth is to be concealed from them […] .
1650, Thomas Browne, chapter I, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], 1st book, page 3