Formerly the wealth of individuals constituted the public treasure; but now this is become the patrimony of private persons. The members of the commonwealth riot on the public spoils, and its strength is only the power of a few, and the licentiousness of the many.Athens was possessed of the same number of forces, when she triumphed so gloriously, and whe with so much infamy she was enslaved.
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.The severity of punishments is fitter for despotic governments, whose principle is terror, than for a monarchy or a republic, whose spring is honor and virtue. In moderate governments, the love of one's country, shame, and the fear of blame, are restraining motives....
...Let us follow nature, who has given shame to man for his scourge; and let the heaviest part of the punishment be the infamy attending it.
But if there are some countries where shame is not a consequence of punishment, this must be owing to tyranny, which has inflicted the same penalties on villains and honest men.
-Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
in 'The Spirit of Laws', 1748
