Hugo Grotius

"The greatest conquest is the conquest of oneself."

"Peace is not merely the absence of war, but the presence of justice."

"Knowledge of the law is the foundation of citizenship."

"The written word preserves what the spoken word cannot hold."

"Nations, like men, must live according to reason and conscience."

"Custom and tradition are the expressions of collective human wisdom."

"The pursuit of truth requires the abandonment of prejudice."

"In all human dealings, honesty is the best policy and the rarest commodity."

"The strength of a state lies not in its armies, but in the justice of its laws."

"To be great is to be misunderstood by the mediocre."

"The study of law illuminates the study of human nature itself."

"Freedom without responsibility is merely license to destroy."

"The blood of innocent people cries out against those who shed it unjustly."

"Every man possesses certain rights by virtue of his humanity alone."

"The law must serve humanity, not humanity the law."

"Change in the world comes through the written word and peaceful discourse."

"Good government protects the weak from the tyranny of the strong."

"The pursuit of peace is the noblest of all human endeavors."

"Mind and reason are the true weapons of civilized men."

"To study history is to learn that man rarely learns from history."

"Compassion is not weakness; it is the highest form of strength."

"The foundation of all law is the principle that harm to others is wrong."

"Nations rise and fall according to whether they obey the laws of nature."

"Truth is like a lion; it does not need to be defended, only released."

"The wise man builds his understanding on reason, not on emotion."

"To govern well is to serve the common good, not private interest."

"Art and beauty are expressions of the divine in human form."

"The scholar's duty is to illuminate the darkness of ignorance."

"Wars are won not by superior force, but by superior understanding."

"The human conscience is the seat of all true morality."