Learning will be cast into the mire and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797): Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 335.

  Here's that which is too weak to be a sinner,—honest water, which ne'er left man i' the mire.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Timon of Athens. Act i. Sc. 2.