Power Should Be A Check

They Who Assert That A Blind Fatality Produced The Various Effects We Behold In This World Talk Very Absurdly; For Can Anything Be More Unreasonable Than To Pretend That A Blind Fatality Could Be Productive Of Intelligent Beings.

The Life Of Man Is But A Succession Of Vain Hopes And Groundless Fears.

...when The Laws Have Ceased To Be Executed, As This Can Only Come From The Corruption Of The Republic, The State Is Already Lost.

Luxury Ruins Republics; Poverty, Monarchies.

Vanity Is As Advantageous To A Government As Pride Is Dangerous. To Be Convinced Of This We Need Only Represent, On The One Hand,the Numberless Benefits Which Result From Vanity, As Industry, The Arts, Fashions, Politeness, And Taste; And On The Other, The Infinite Evils Which Spring From The Pride Of Certain Nations, A Laziness, Poverty, A Total Neglect Of Everything.