Montesquieu

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

“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 const...”

“It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.”

“Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.”

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

“What orators lack in depth they make up for in length.”

“I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.”

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

“I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.”

“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.”

“An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.”

“To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.”

“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.”

“Weak minds exaggerate too much the wrong done to the Africans.”

“The severity of the laws prevents their execution.”

“The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.”

“Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.”

“We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid...”

“An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.”

“To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.”