Quotes from Charles de Secondat

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.

When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.

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.

Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.

The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.

There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.

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.

Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.

We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death.

I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.

Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people.

An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.

Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.

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.

In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.

An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.

When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.

Power ought to serve as a check to power.

It is not the young people that degenerate they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.

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.

Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.

There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.

I've never known any trouble that an hour's reading didn't assuage.

Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.