When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.

Laws, in their most general signification, are the necessary relations arising from the nature of things. In this sense all beings have their laws: the Deity His laws, the material world its laws, the intelligences superior to man their laws, the beasts their laws, man his laws.

The wickedness of mankind makes it necessary for the law to suppose them better than they really are.

An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.

There are countries where a man is worth nothing; there are others where he is worth less than nothing.

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.

The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.