Montesquieu

There are two sorts of tyranny: one real, which consists in the violence of the government; and the other of opinion, which is felt when those who govern establish things that clash with the notions of a nation.

We should not be surprised to see the great men of history so often overcome by fortune. It is because they were not great enough to despise it.

The less we think, the more we believe.

It is always the more powerful who are in the right.

The severity of punishments is more dangerous to liberty than the state of nature itself.

The people are extremely fickle, and if they are not governed by strict laws, they will soon fall into anarchy.

In moderate governments, the love of the country is the love of the whole.