Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.
— Montesquieu
Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer.
Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.
Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.
The severity of the laws prevents their execution.
There is no one, says another, whom fortune does not visit once in his life; but when she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door, and flies out at the window.
I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.
Author: A fool who, not content with having bored those who have lived with him, insists on tormenting generations to come.
Power ought to serve as a check to power.
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.
A man should be mourned at his birth, not at his death.
The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.
Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.
There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.
We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death.
An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.
In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.
The reason the Romans built their great paved highways was because they had such inconvenient footwear.
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.
Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?
It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.
Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.
The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver.
Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.
To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.
A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century.
Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.
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.
There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.
