Charles de Secondat Quotes & Sayings (Page 4)

“When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.”

“There are only two cases in which war is just: first, in order to resist the aggression of an enemy, and second, in order to help an ally who has been attacked.”

“Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.”

“Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.”

“Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.”

“The state of slavery is in its own nature bad.”

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

“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.”

“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.”