Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEULife was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUHappy the people whose annals are tiresome.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUAn injustice to one is a threat made to all
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUIn the matter of dress one should always keep below one’s ability.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUMediocrity is a hand-rail.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThus 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.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThe laws do not take upon them to punish any other than overt acts.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThere 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.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThe Christian religion is a stranger to mere despotic power. The mildness so frequently recommended in the Gospel is incompatible with the despotic rage.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUAn author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThere should be weeping at a man’s birth, not at his death.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUKnowledge humanizes mankind, and reason inclines to mildness; but prejudices eradicate every tender disposition.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEURepublics come to an end by luxurious habits; monarchies by poverty.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUSociety is the union of men and not the men themselves.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThe state is the association of men, and not men themselves; the citizen may perish, and the man remain.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThe incomparable stupidity of life teaches us to love our parents; divine philosophy teaches us to forgive them.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU