French - Philosopher | January 18, 1689 - February 10, 1755
A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century.
Montesquieu
DayLoseNationMissMayCentury
I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.
FearReadingNeverDistressHour
Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.
DoingLibertyRightWhateverLaws
In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.
ShapeChiefsStateInstitutions
The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver.
SpiritModerationShouldAlso
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.
LifeDoorWindowFindReadyShe
Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?
GodReligionThinkYouWillReveal
A man should be mourned at his birth, not at his death.
DeathManBirthShouldHisMourned
There is only one thing that can form a bond between men, and that is gratitude... we cannot give someone else greater power over us than we have ourselves.
GratitudePowerMenBondSomeoneUs
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.
LifePowerManSlaveryRightOver
The state of slavery is in its own nature bad.
NatureSlaveryBadOwnState
Thus the creation, which seems an arbitrary act, supposes laws as invariable as those of the fatality of the Atheists. It would be absurd to say that the Creator might govern the world without those rules, since without them it could not subsist.
WorldRulesCreationSayWithout
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