A man should be mourned at his birth, not at his death.
Charles de Secondat

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.
Charles de Secondat

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.
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.
Charles de Secondat

Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?
Charles de Secondat

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

Happy the people whose annals are tiresome.
Charles de Secondat

I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise.
Charles de Secondat

I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.
Charles de Secondat

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.
Charles de Secondat

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.
Charles de Secondat

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.
Charles de Secondat

Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.
Charles de Secondat

Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.
Charles de Secondat

Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.
Charles de Secondat

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

Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer.
Charles de Secondat

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.
Charles de Secondat

Power ought to serve as a check to power.
Charles de Secondat

Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.
Charles de Secondat