It is not good for him who makes the laws to execute them, or for the body of the people to turn its… — Jean Jacques Rousseau
It is not good for him who makes the laws to execute them, or for the body of the people to turn its attention away from a general standpoint and devote it to particular objects. Nothing is more dangerous than the influence of private interests in public affairs, and the abuse of the laws by the government is a less evil than the corruption of the legislator.
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Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they.
The body politic, like the human body, begins to die from its birth, and bears in itself the causes of its destruction.
At Genoa, the word Liberty may be read over the front of the prisons and on the chains of the galley-slaves. This application of the device is good and just. It is indeed only malefactors of all estates who prevent the citizen from being free. In the country in which all such men were in the galleys, the most perfect liberty would be enjoyed.
