When the [law making] and [law enforcement] powers are united in the same person... there can be no liberty.

The spirit of commerce is frugality, economy, moderation, labor, ponderance, tranquillity, order, and rule. So long as this spirit subsides, the riches it produces have no bad effect. The mischief is when excessive wealth destroys the spirit of commerce, then it is that the conveniences of inequality... are felt.

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.

I shall be obliged to wander to the right and to the left, that I may investigate and discover the truth.

The harshest tyranny is that which acts under the protection of legality and the banner of justice.

In constitutional states, liberty is compensation for heavy taxes; in dictatorships, the subsititue is light taxes.

Honor is unknown in despotic states.