quote · Legacy record

No government, however efficient, was morally justified unless it rested on the active participation of all its citizens. Thus reason and morality do not exist in the state by nature; they are products of civil society. The desire to have cake and eat it too is as old as human nature. Social order is a sacred right. Men are not natural enemies. You cannot corrupt the people, but you often can deceive them. In a well-governed state they are a few criminals. Nothing is more dangerous than the influence of private interests in public affairs; and the abuse of laws by the government is a lesser evil than the corruption of the legislative authority, which is the inevitable result of particular opinions. When all this occurs, the substance of the state changes, and all reforms become impossible. … In the strict sense of the term, there never has been, and there never will be, a real democracy. The tyrant is one who presumes, in defiance of the law, to rule in accordance with the law; the despot is one who places himself above the law itself.

No government, however efficient, was morally justified unless it rested on the active participation of all its citizens. Thus reason and morality do not exist in the state by nature; they are products of civil society. The desire to have cake and eat it too is as old as human nature. Social order is a sacred right. Men are not natural enemies. You cannot corrupt the people, but you often can deceive them. In a well-governed state they are a few criminals. Nothing is more dangerous than the influence of private interests in public affairs; and the abuse of laws by the government is a lesser evil than the corruption of the legislative authority, which is the inevitable result of particular opinions. When all this occurs, the substance of the state changes, and all reforms become impossible. … In the strict sense of the term, there never has been, and there never will be, a real democracy. The tyrant is one who presumes, in defiance of the law, to rule in accordance with the law; the despot is one who places himself above the law itself.

Approximate author period: c. 1745 AD · early modern