Charles de Montesquieu

“Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.”

“We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death.”

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

“There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.”

“Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.”

“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.”

“False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.”

“The less men think, the more they talk.”

“Peace is a natural effect of trade.”

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

“In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.”

“Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.”

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