Montesquieu

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread.

Power should be a check to power.

I call a republic whatever government is guided by general laws.

The legislator should follow the spirit of the nation.

It is necessary to examine into the laws in relation to the nature of the climate.

The best government is that which governs least.

The history of almost all nations shows that if they have lost their liberty, it has been by the fault of the people, not the prince.

Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to a master such a power over his slave as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune.

The people in monarchies are, generally speaking, more capable of an attachment to the prince, than to the state.

It is not the young people that degenerate; they are only open to the impressions of others; it is the old people that are corrupt, and have corrupted them.

Luxury is therefore absolutely necessary in monarchies; as it is also in despotic states, but not in republics.

In a true state of nature, indeed, all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the force of laws.

When an army is once formed, it is always to be feared.

The political liberty of the subject is a tranquillity of mind arising from the opinion each person has of his safety. In order to have this liberty, it is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another.

In reading history you will find that the laws of nature, in the early periods of society, were constantly violated; that the strongest had no right against the weakest, and that the laws of war were often arbitrary.

When the savages of Louisiana are desirous of fruit, they cut the tree to the root, and gather the fruit. This is an emblem of despotic government.

Frequent punishments are a sign of weakness or indolence in the government.

The law, in its most general signification, is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth; the political and civil laws of each nation ought to be only the particular cases in which this human reason is applied.

To prevent the executive power from being able to oppress, it is requisite that the armies with which it is entrusted should consist of the people, and have the same spirit as the people.

Trade is a cure for the most destructive prejudices; for it is almost a general rule, that wherever we find agreeable manners, there commerce flourishes; and wherever there is commerce, there we meet with agreeable manners.