Gathering from greats such as Sun Tzu, Jean Bodin, Alexis de Tocqueville, and others, we come to a list of quotes on the topic of the well-ordered society that should serve as a guide to any Web3 community seeking to establish its own constitution.

The Big List Of Quotes On The Well-Ordered Society

From Sun Tzu’s emphasis on clear roles and responsibilities to Fukuyama’s focus on trust as the bedrock of social cooperation, these thinkers converge on several key themes: the necessity of shared purpose, the balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility, and the critical importance of voluntary participation in civic life. What emerges is not a rigid blueprint but rather a set of principles that can guide communities—whether physical nations or digital Web3 organizations—toward sustainable self-governance.

The quotes in the list below are organized by the subject’s date of birth. Let’s get to it!

Sun Tzu

“… when there are no fixed duties assigned to officers and men… the result is utter disorganization.” – Sun Tzu

Plato

“… in all well-ordered States every individual has an occupation to which he must attend, and has therefore no leisure to spend in continually being ill.” – Plato

Niccolò Machiavelli

“… put the people before the army, because the people are more powerful.” – Niccolò Machiavelli

Jean Bodin

“There is no commonwealth where there is no common interest…” – Jean Bodin

David Hume

“Society provides a remedy for these three inconveniences. By the conjunction of forces, our power is augmented: By the partition of employments, our ability increases: And by mutual succour we are less expos’d to fortune and accidents. ‘Tis by this additional force, ability, and security, that society becomes advantageous. But in order to form society, ‘tis requisite not only that it be advantageous, but also that men be sensible of these advantages…” – David Hume

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“There is but one law that by its nature requires unanimous consent. This is the social pact, for civil association is the most voluntary act in the world. Since every man is born free and master of himself, no one can, under any pretext whatsoever, subjugate him without his consent. To decide that the son of a slave is born a slave is to decide that he is not born a man.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Alexis de Tocqueville

“A nation that asks of its government only the maintenance of order is already a slave at the bottom of its heart. The nation is a slave of its well-being, and the man who is to put it in chains can appear…” – Alexis de Tocqueville
“… I imagine a society where all, seeing the law as their work, would love it and would submit to it without difficulty; where since the authority of the government is respected as necessary and not as divine, the love that is felt for the head of State would be not a passion, but a reasoned and calm sentiment. Since each person has rights and is assured of preserving his rights, a manly confidence and a kind of reciprocal condescension, as far from pride as from servility, would be established among all classes. Instructed in their true interests, the people would understand that, in order to take advantage of the good things of society, you must submit to its burdens.”- Alexis de Tocqueville
“… for society to exist, and, with even more reason, for this society to prosper, all the minds of the citizens must always be brought and held together by some principal ideas; and that cannot happen without each one of them coming at times to draw his opinions from the same source and consenting to receive a certain number of ready-made beliefs.”- Alexis de Tocqueville
“When citizens are forced to occupy themselves with public affairs, they are necessarily drawn away from the middle of their individual interests and are, from time to time, dragged away from looking at themselves. From the moment when common affairs are treated together, each man notices that he is not as independent of his fellows as he first imagined, and that, to gain their support, he must often lend them his help. When the public governs, there is no man who does not feel the value of the public’s regard and who does not seek to win it by gaining the esteem and affection of those among whom he must live.”- Alexis de Tocqueville
“… it is by charging citizens with the administration of small affairs, much more than by giving them the government of great ones, that you interest them in the public good and make them see the need that they constantly have for each other in order to produce that good.”- Alexis de Tocqueville
“… the jury, which is the most energetic means to make the people rule, is also the most effective means to teach them to rule.”- Alexis de Tocqueville
“Laws act on mores; and more, on laws. Wherever these two things do not lend each other mutual support, there is unrest, revolution tearing apart the society.”- Alexis de Tocqueville

Ernest Renan

“A nation is a body and soul at the same time… The nation, like the individual, is the outcome of a long past of efforts, sacrifices, and devotions.” – Ernest Renan
“These are the essential conditions of being a people: having common glories in the past and a will to continue them in the present; having made great things together and wishing to make them again.” – Ernest Renan

Émile Durkheim

“Society is not… the secondary condition for progress, but the determining factor.” – Émile Durkheim
“Law and morality represent the totality of bonds that bind us to one another and to society, shaping the mass of individuals into a cohesive aggregate.” – Émile Durkheim

Gulick & Urwick

“A nation or a state is [a] sort of social group, living together and in no remote sense workin together for common ends, whose management is the art we call governing.” – Gulick & Urwick

Friedrich A. Hayek

“It is of the essence of a free society that a man’s value and remuneration depend not on capacity in the abstract but on success in turning it into concrete service which is useful to others who can reciprocate.” – Friedrich A. Hayek
“Perhaps one of the most important characteristics that distinguish a free from an unfree society is indeed that, in matters of conduct that do not directly affect the protected sphere of others, the rules which are in fact observed by most are of voluntary character and not enforced by coercion.” – Friedrich A. Hayek

Bertrand de Jouvenel

“It is in society that a man meets with the various co-operators and traders by means of whom he assures himself of a material comfort such as he could never acquire in a state of isolation. It is in society again that he finds occasions for romance, enthusiasm and devotion, in other words, his spiritual good. It is by means of social relations that moral and intellectual truths are propounded to him…” – Bertrand de Jouvenel
“A society keeps in being only in so far as each man does not encroach on what belongs to another, keeps his sworn oath, acts contractually, and generally answers to another’s expectation. Disappointed expectations are the death of life in society.” – Bertrand de Jouvenel
“… only transcendental ties of affection could hold the human race together in a world-wide society.” – Bertrand de Jouvenel
“Society furnishes us with opportunities for conceiving what our good is to be; it furnishes us also with opportunities for realising it.” – Bertrand de Jouvenel

John Rawls

“A just social system defines the scope within which individuals must develop their aims, and it provides a framework of rights and opportunities and the means of satisfaction within and by the use of which these ends may be equitably pursued.” – John Rawls
“… the chief primary goods at the disposition of society are rights, liberties, and opportunities, and income and wealth. These are the social primary goods.” – John Rawls
“… a society is a cooperative venture for mutual advantage [and] is well-ordered when…” – John Rawls
- “… a shared conception of justice is its fundamental charter”
- “… there is a public understanding as to what is just and unjust.”
- “… justice establishes the bonds of civic friendship”
- “… the general desire for justice limits the pursuit of other ends”
- “… it is designed to advance the good of its members”
- “… [it is] a scheme of cooperation for reciprocal advantage regulated by principles which persons would choose in an initial situation that is fair”
- “… the basic social institutions satisfy and are known to satisfy these principles [of justice]”

Francis Fukuyama

“… a nation’s well-being, as well as its ability to compete, is conditioned by a single, pervasive cultural characteristic: the level of trust inherent in the society.” – Francis Fukuyama

Final Thoughts

Perhaps most striking is how these diverse voices, separated by centuries and cultures, consistently emphasize that a well-ordered society requires more than just rules and structures. Tocqueville’s insight that citizens must be “drawn away from the middle of their individual interests” resonates with Durkheim’s observation that society is “the determining factor” in human progress, not merely a backdrop. This suggests that successful communities—including those forming in the digital realm—must cultivate genuine bonds of affection, shared sacrifice, and mutual dependency. The mechanical aspects of governance, while necessary, are insufficient without what Jouvenel calls the “transcendental ties of affection” that bind people together in common purpose.

For Web3 communities seeking to establish their own constitutions, these collected insights offer both inspiration and warning. The path to a well-ordered society requires balancing structure with flexibility, authority with freedom, and individual aspirations with collective needs. As Rawls reminds us, justice must establish “the bonds of civic friendship,” while Rousseau insists that legitimate authority requires genuine consent. In our increasingly digital and decentralized world, these timeless principles take on new urgency and complexity. The challenge for modern community builders is to translate these philosophical foundations into practical frameworks that can thrive in an environment where traditional boundaries of geography and governance no longer apply, yet where the fundamental human needs for order, meaning, and belonging remain unchanged.

Thanks for reading!