What unhappy beings men are! They constantly waver between false hopes and silly fears, and instead of relying on reason they create monsters to frighten themselves with, and phantoms which lead them astray.

A love of the republic in a democracy is a love of the democracy, as the latter is that of equality. A love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality. Since every individual ought here to enjoy the same happiness, and the same advantages, they should consequently taste the same pleasures and form the same hopes, which cannot be expected but from a general frugality.

To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.

Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.

When a government is arrived to that degree of corruption as to be incapable of reforming itself, it would not lose much by being new moulded.

It is unreasonable ... to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.

The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.