Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The ministers of kings should learn to moderate their ambition. The higher they elevate themselves above their proper sphere, the greater the danger that they will fall.
That a peasant may become king does not render the kingdom democratic.
The enemies cannot destroy the king who has at his service the respect and friendship of the wise men who can find fault, disagree, and correct him.
Kings govern by popular assemblies only when they cannot do without them.
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
Tyrants are seldom free; the cares and the instruments of their tyranny enslave them.
This principle is old, but true as fate, Kings may love treason, but the traitor hate.
Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.
It is foolishly thought by some that democratical constitutions will not, cannot, last; that the States will quarrel with each other; that a king, or at least a nobility, are indispensable for the prosperity of a nation.
If the king refuses the constitution, I shall oppose him; if he accepts it, I shall defend him; and the day on which he gave himself up as my prisoner secured me more fully to his service than if he had promised me half his kingdom.