Jerry Pournelle said this quote
“ Mr. Prince, would you like to know the most significant event in the history of freedom?The American Revolution?A defensible choice, a close second even, but not mine. I would choose the moment when the Roman plebians required the patricians to write down the twelve tables of the law and put them where everyone could see them -- thereby proclaimed the law supreme over the politicians. The rule of law is the essence of freedom. ”