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.

The less men think, the more they talk.

The harshest tyranny is that which acts under the protection of legality and the banner of justice.

Laws, in their most general signification, are the necessary relations arising from the nature of things. In this sense all beings have their laws: the Deity His laws, the material world its laws, the intelligences superior to man their laws, the beasts their laws, man his laws.

The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.

Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.

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