Charles de Secondat Man Quotations

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.

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.

A man should be mourned at his birth, not at his death.

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.

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.

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.