Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.

The Ottoman Empire whose sick body was not supported by a mild and regular diet, but by a powerful treatment, which continually exhausted it.

There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.

The spirit of commerce... renders every man willing to live on his own property...& prevents the growth of luxury.

Law should be like death, which spares no one.

When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.

In vain do we seek tranquility in the desert; temptations are always with us; our passions, represented by the demons, never let us alone: those monsters created by the heart, those illusions produced by the mind, those vain specters that are our errors and our lies always appear before us to seduce us; they attack us even in our fasting or our mortifications, in other words, in our very strength.