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

For a country, everything will be lost when the jobs of an economist and a banker become highly respected professions.

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.

There are only two cases in which war is just: first, in order to resist the aggression of an enemy, and second, in order to help an ally who has been attacked.

Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.

Friendship is a contract in which we render small services in expectation of big ones.

When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it and avarice possesses the whole community.