There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.
Montesquieu
I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise.
To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.
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.
There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.
Power ought to serve as a check to power.
The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.
The less men think, the more they talk.
I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise.
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.
If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, and that is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.
If triangles had a god, they would give him three sides.
Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.
Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles.
We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death.
Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.
I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.
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.
A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century.
No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.
Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.
It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.
There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.
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.
An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
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.
We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.
When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.
Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.
In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.
In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.
Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.
You have to study a great deal to know a little.
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.
There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.
The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver.
Weak minds exaggerate too much the wrong done to the Africans.
False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.
It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.
The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.
Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it.
Peace is a natural effect of trade.
The object of war is victory; that of victory is conquest; and that of conquest preservation.
Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.
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?
To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.
Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.
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.
Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.
