38 Quotes by Charles de Secondat

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

Power ought to serve as a check to power.

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.

The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles.

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

There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.

Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.

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.

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.