Political Sayings
93 sayings found from the Early Modern era from 15 authors
Category
I have never heard of anything so insolent as to propose to the English Parliament to give up their liberty by their own consent.
The political liberty of the subject is a tranquility of mind, arising from the opinion each person has of his safety.
The tyranny of a prince is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.
In moderate governments, the love of the country, shame, and the fear of blame are restraining motives, which may prevent many crimes.
The less we think, the more we talk: so it is with women and politicians.
Republics are destroyed by luxury, monarchies by poverty.
The state of monarchy is the most powerful of all governments.
If a republic is small, it is destroyed by a foreign force; if it is large, it is ruined by an internal imperfection.
The principle of despotic government is fear.
The Christian religion, which orders men to love one another, no doubt wants the best political laws and the best civil laws for each people.
The more a government approaches to a republic, the less is the business of the prince.
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, and execute them in a…
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.
In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.
Again, there is no liberty, if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers. Were it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control; for the judge would be the…
I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.
What is the government? Nothing, unless supported by opinion.
It is harder to keep the balance of freedom than to endure the weight of tyranny.
Anarchy is the abyss into which all republics are precipitated.
I am a soldier and a politician, but I am also a philosopher. I seek the truth, and I speak what I believe to be true.