"It is not the young people that degenerate; they are only rather thoughtless: the old ones are corrupt."

"Republics are destroyed by luxury, monarchies by poverty."

"Luxury is useful in a monarchy, and pernicious in a republic."

"The political liberty of the subject is a tranquillity of mind arising from the opinion each person has of his safety. In order to have this liberty, it is requisite the government be so constituted a…"

"In a true state of nature, indeed, all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the force of laws."