There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.

In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.

As soon as man enters into a state of society he loses the sense of his weakness; equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.

Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.

No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.

Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.

It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.

A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century.

We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death.

Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.

I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.

The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles.

Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.

If triangles had a god, they would give him three sides.

I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise.

If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, and that is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.

But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.

The less men think, the more they talk.

Power ought to serve as a check to power.

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.

There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.

When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.

To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.