In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.
Baron de MontesquieuPolitics are a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by slow progression.
Baron de MontesquieuWe 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.
Baron de MontesquieuLaws, 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.
Baron de Montesquieu