The law of nations is naturally founded on this principle, that different nations ought in time of peace to do one another all the good they can, and in time of war as little injury as possible, without prejudicing their real interests.

The state of slavery is in its own nature bad.

Law in general is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth: the political and civil laws of each nation ought to be only the particular cases in which human reason is applied.

Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.

The reason the Romans built their great paved highways was because they had such inconvenient footwear.

An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.

Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune.

Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.

It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.

Author: A fool who, not content with having bored those who have lived with him, insists on tormenting generations to come.

Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.

A man should be mourned at his birth, not at his death.

Thus the creation, which seems an arbitrary act, supposes laws as invariable as those of the fatality of the Atheists. It would be absurd to say that the Creator might govern the world without those rules, since without them it could not subsist.

People here argue about religion interminably, but it appears that they are competing at the same time to see who can be the least devout.

Although born in a prosperous realm, we did not believe that its boundaries should limit our knowledge, and that the lore of the East should alone enlighten us.

In bodies moved, the motion is received, increased, diminished, or lost, according to the relations of the quantity of matter and velocity; each diversity is uniformity, each change is constancy.

The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.

Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.

Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer.

What orators lack in depth they make up for in length.

Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.

Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.

There are only two cases in which war is just: first, in order to resist the aggression of an enemy, and second, in order to help an ally who has been attacked.

There should be weeping at a man's birth, not at his death.

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

The severity of the laws prevents their execution.

I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.

Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?

Happy the people whose annals are tiresome.

Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.