Antiquity! I like its ruins better than its reconstructions.
The lively phraseology of Montesquieu was the result of long meditation. His words, as light as wings, bear on them grave reflections.
We must respect the past, and mistrust the present, if we wish to provide for the safety of the future.
We disjoint the mind like the body.
Grace imitates modesty, as politeness imitates kindness.
I do not call reason that brutal reason which crushes with its weight what is holy and sacred, that malignant reason which delights in the errors it succeeds in discovering, that unfeeling and scornful reason which insults credulity.