 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. |
| You have to study a great deal to know a little. |
| Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason. |
| I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there. |
| 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. |
| Society is the union of men and not the men themselves. |
| 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. |
| The law of nations is naturally founded on this principle, that different nations ought in time of peace to do one another all the good they can, and in time of war as little injury as possible, without prejudicing their real interests. |
| Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations. |
| The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles. |
| 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? |
| People here argue about religion interminably, but it appears that they are competing at the same time to see who can be the least devout. |
| Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty. |
| The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed. |
| 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. |
| Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws. |
| I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise. |
| 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. |
| Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them? |
