We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our school-masters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.

In every government there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that depend on the civil law.

There are bad examples which are worse than crimes; and more states have perished from the violation of morality than from the violation of law.

Better it is to say that the government most comfortable to nature is that which best agrees with the humor and disposition of the people in whose favor it is established.

Politics are a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by slow progression.

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, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.

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