The Spirit of the Laws

"It is a true maxim that one nation should never exclude another from trading with it, except for very great reasons."

"The avarice of nations makes them quarrel for the movables of the whole universe."

"Commerce is sometimes destroyed by conquerors, sometimes cramped by monarchs; it traverses the earth, flies from the places where it is oppressed, and stays where it has liberty to breath: it reigns at present where nothing was formerly to be seen but deserts, seas, and rocks; and where it once reigned now there are only deserts."

"The history of commerce is that of the communication of the people."

"Slowness is frequently the cause of much greater slowness."

"The first Greeks were all pirates."

"Great commanders write their actions with simplicity; because they receive more glory from facts than from words."

"The compass opened, if I may so express myself, the universe."

"Money is a sign which represents the value of all merchandise."

"I shall ever repeat it, that mankind are governed not by extremes, but by principles of moderation."

"Men who have absolutely nothing, such as beggars, have many children."

"There are countries where a man is worth nothing; there are others where he is worth less than nothing."

"Christianity stamped its character on jurisprudence; for empire has ever a connection with the priesthood."

"A man is not poor because he has nothing, but because he does not work."

"The alms given to a naked man in the street do not fulfil the obligations of the state, which owes to every citizen a certain subsistence, a proper nourishment, convenient clothing, and a kind of life not incompatible with health."

"It is a misfortune to human nature, when religion is given by a conqueror. The Mahometan religion, which speaks only by the sword, acts still upon men with that destructive spirit with which it was founded."

"Human laws, made to direct the will, ought to give precepts, and not counsels; religion, made to influence the heart, should give many counsels, and few precepts."

"Penances ought to be joined with the idea of labour, not with that of idleness; with the idea of good, not with that of supereminence; with the idea of frugality, not with that of avarice."

"As both religion and the civil laws ought to have a peculiar tendency to render men good citizens, it is evident that when one of these deviates from this end, the tendency of the other ought to be strengthened. The less severity there is in religion, the more there ought to be in the civil laws."

"The most true and holy doctrines may be attended with the very worst consequences when they are not connected with the principles of society: and on the contrary, doctrines the most false may be attended with excellent consequences when contrived so as to be connected with these principles."

"When religion appoints a cessation from labour it ought to have a greater regard to the necessities of mankind than to the grandeur of the being it designs to honour."

"Men are extremely inclined to the passions of hope and fear; a religion, therefore, that had neither a heaven nor a hell could hardly please them."

"Les hommes, fripons en détail, sont en gros de très honnêtes gens."

"We ought not to decide by divine laws what should be decided by human laws; nor determine by human what should be determined by divine laws."

"Useless laws weaken the necessary laws."

"Nothing is a greater obstacle to our progress in knowledge, then a bad performance of a celebrated author; because, before we instruct we must begin with undeceiving."

"Very good laws may be ill timed."