Laws always lose in energy what the government gains in extent.

The possession of power inevitably spoils the free use of reason.

From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.

[A ruler is merely] the trustee of the rights of other men and he must always stand in dread of having in some way violated these rights.

Have the courage to use your own reason- That is the motto of enlightenment. "Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals" (1785)

This spirit of freedom is expanding even where it must struggle against the external obstacles of governments that misunderstand their own function. Such governments are illuminated by the example that the existence of freedom need not give cause for the least concern regarding public order and harmony in the commonwealth. If only they refrain from inventing artifices to keep themselves in it, men will gradually raise themselves from barbarism.

Nature even in chaos cannot proceed otherwise than regularly and according to order.