Speech is but the incorporation of thought.

The passions should be purged; all may become innocent if they are well directed and moderated. Even hatred maybe a commendable feeling when it is caused by a lively love of good. Whatever makes the passions pure, makes them stronger, more durable, and more enjoyable.

Today there are no more irreconcilable enmities, because there are no more disinterested emotions: that's a good thing born from a bad thing.

Ask the young. They know everything.

Religion is the only metaphysic that the multitude can understand and adopt.

Man is born with the faculty of speech. Who gives it to him? He who gives the bird its song.

The lively phraseology of Montesquieu was the result of long meditation. His words, as light as wings, bear on them grave reflections.