In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.
From Charles de Montesquieu
The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.
We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.
If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, and that is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.
Author: A fool who, not content with having bored those who have lived with him, insists on tormenting generations to come.
There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.
Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.
No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.
It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.
False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.
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