There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.
Baron de MontesquieuEver since the invention of gunpowder.. I continually tremble lest men should, in the end, uncover some secret which would provide a short way of abolishing mankind, of annihilating peoples and nations in their entirety.
Baron de MontesquieuThere is something in animals beside the power of motion. They are not machines; they feel.
Baron de MontesquieuIf 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.
Baron de Montesquieu