Charles de Secondat Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Power ought to serve as a check to power.”

“They who assert that a blind fatality produced the various effects we behold in this world talk very absurdly; for can anything be more unreasonable than to pretend that a blind fatality could be productive of intelligent beings?”

“The object of war is victory; that of victory is conquest; and that of conquest preservation.”

“You have to study a great deal to know a little.”

“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.”

“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.”