Nicodemus and the Samaritan Woman

John may intend a contrast between the woman of this narrative [John Ch. 4] and Nicodemus of Ch. 3. He was learned, powerful, respected, orthodox, theologically trained; she was unschooled, without influence, despised, capable only of folk religion. He was a man, a Jew, a ruler; she was a woman, a Samaritan, a moral outcast. And both needed Jesus.

DA Carson
The Gospel According to John
IVP
p216

Government

The fall from kingdom to tyranny is easy; but it is not much more difficult to fall from the rule of the best men to the faction of a few; yet it is easiest of all to fall from popular rule to sedition.

J Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion
The Westminster Press
p1493