Charles de Secondat Quotes
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
Related Authors
Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Blaise Pascal, Michel de Montaigne, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Charles de Montesquieu, Gaston Bachelard, Henri Bergson
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