Charles de Montesquieu

"It is not the young people that degenerate they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption."

"Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death."

"We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death."

"I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve."

"There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion."

"Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones."