One was free under the laws, one wants to be free against them.
Each citizen is like a slave who has escaped from his master's house.

What was a maxim is now called severity; what was a rule is now called constraint; what was vigilance is now called fear. There, frugality, not the desire to possess, is avarice.

Formerly the goods of individuals made up the public treasury; the public treasury has now become the patrimony of individuals.

The republic is a cast-off husk, and its strength is no more than the power of a few citizens and the license of all.

Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws