Tis hard to comprehend how one man can come to be master of many, equal to himself in right, unless it be by consent or by force.

[A]ll popular and well-mixed governments [republics] . . . are ever established by wise and good men, and can never be upheld otherwise than by virtue: The worst men always conspiring against them, they must fall, if the best have not power to preserve them. . . . [and] unless they be preserved in a great measure free from vices . . . .

Tis hard to comprehend how one man can come to be master of many, equal to himself in right, unless it be by consent or by force.

Everyone sees they cannot well live asunder, nor many together, without some rule to which all must submit.

That which is not just, is not Law; and that which is not Law, ought not to be obeyed.

We cannot distinguish truth from falsehood, right from wrong, or know what obedience we owe to the magistrate, or what we may justly expect from him, unless we know what he is, why he is, and by whom he is made to be what he is.... I cannot know how to obey unless I know in what, and to whom; nor in what unless I know what ought to be commanded; nor what ought to be commanded unless I understand the original right of the commander, which is the great arcanum.

[I]f vice and corruption prevail, liberty cannot subsist; but if virtue have the advantage, arbitrary power cannot be established.