If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman... because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.

Charles de Secondat

Charles de Secondat

Accidentally Am Another Because Could First French I Am Knew Man Nation Necessarily Only Prince Propose Ruin Serve Something Then Would

Related Quotes

Power ought to serve as a check to power.

— Charles de Secondat

CheckOughtPower

I am struck by how casually we as a nation react to the carnage in Iraq.

— Charles B. Rangel

Maybe I am not French, maybe I am from nowhere.

— Alain Prost

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.

— Charles de Secondat

AbsoluteAnotherEstablishment

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.

— Charles de Secondat

AppliedCasesCivil