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.

Many things are unknown to the wisest, and the best men can never wholly divest themselves of passions and affections... nothing can or ought to be permanent but that which is perfect.

[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 . . . .

If the public safety be provided, liberty and propriety secured, justice administered, virtue encouraged, vice suppressed, and the true interest of the nation advanced, the ends of government are accomplished . . .

That is the best Government, which best provides for war.

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

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