Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune.
Charles de Secondat

Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.
Charles de Secondat

Power ought to serve as a check to power.
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

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

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

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.
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