Guess quote

Charles de Secondat [1689-1755] French

Power, Equality, Experience, Government, Men, Politics, Religion, Society, Strength

Quote	Tags	Rank
But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.	Experience, Power	101
Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.	Religion	102
There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.		103
Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer.		104
I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.		105
Weak minds exaggerate too much the wrong done to the Africans.		106
Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people.	Men	107
I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise.		108
Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.		109
The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles.		110
Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.	Society	111
Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.		112
You have to study a great deal to know a little.		113
Power ought to serve as a check to power.	Power	114
In bodies moved, the motion is received, increased, diminished, or lost, according to the relations of the quantity of matter and velocity; each diversity is uniformity, each change is constancy.		115
The object of war is victory; that of victory is conquest; and that of conquest preservation.		116
There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.	Government	117
When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.		118
Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.	Strength	119
There is only one thing that can form a bond between men, and that is gratitude... we cannot give someone else greater power over us than we have ourselves.		120
Although born in a prosperous realm, we did not believe that its boundaries should limit our knowledge, and that the lore of the East should alone enlighten us.		121
Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?		122
A man should be mourned at his birth, not at his death.		123
People here argue about religion interminably, but it appears that they are competing at the same time to see who can be the least devout.		124
There are only two cases in which war is just: first, in order to resist the aggression of an enemy, and second, in order to help an ally who has been attacked.		125
Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune.		126
Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.		201
The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.		202
Happy the people whose annals are tiresome.		203
They who assert that a blind fatality produced the various effects we behold in this world talk very absurdly; for can anything be more unreasonable than to pretend that a blind fatality could be productive of intelligent beings?		204
As soon as man enters into a state of society he loses the sense of his weakness; equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.	Equality	205
The law of nations is naturally founded on this principle, that different nations ought in time of peace to do one another all the good they can, and in time of war as little injury as possible, without prejudicing their real interests.		206
Law in general is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth: the political and civil laws of each nation ought to be only the particular cases in which human reason is applied.		207
When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.	Politics	208
Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.		209
The state of slavery is in its own nature bad.		210
If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman... because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.		211
Thus the creation, which seems an arbitrary act, supposes laws as invariable as those of the fatality of the Atheists. It would be absurd to say that the Creator might govern the world without those rules, since without them it could not subsist.		212
Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.		213

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