"To form a moderate government, it is necessary to combine the powers, to regulate them, to temper them, to set them in motion; to give, so to speak, a ballast to one, in order to enable it to resist a…"

"In a state of nature, indeed, all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality."

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

"The climate, the religion, the laws, the maxims of government, the precedents, the morals, and the customs; all these things have a reciprocal influence on one another."

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