Governments must be conformable to the nature of the governed; governments are even a result of that nature.

The nature of peoples is first crude, then severe, then benign, then delicate, finally dissolute.

Understanding arises through making

Political Science carries inseparably with it the study of piety, and that he who is not pious cannot be truly wise.

Common sense is judgment without reflection, shared by an entire class, an entire nation, or the entire human race.

Men first feel necessity, then look for utility, next attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad and waste their substance.

The straight line cannot proceed through the torturous twists of life.