Montesquieu

"Truth is easy to state, difficult to prove."

"The climate shapes the body; education shapes the mind."

"All arts are founded on the competition between the useful and the beautiful."

"Excessive punishments harden criminals rather than reform them."

"The only proper punishment is that which is just and necessary."

"A genius is one who takes the obvious and makes it beautiful."

"Commerce is the result of equality and peace."

"Truth needs no witnesses."

"What is virtue? It is to be capable of the finest deeds."

"The soul is refined by knowledge and experience."

"Despotism is the easiest government."

"Money does not make happiness, but it does make misery."

"A wise man adapts himself to circumstances."

"In the state of liberty, we find ourselves not free."

"The diversity of mankind is the greatest of God's creations."

"A man of learning is but a learned fool."

"The greatest perfection of society is not in having no laws but in having necessary laws."

"Courage without wisdom is folly."

"The more virtuous a state, the less laws it needs."

"Time is measured by the changes it brings."

"A friend is one who desires your happiness for no reason."

"The secret of being happy is to be grateful for small things."

"Imagination creates the world anew."

"Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness."

"The penalty for governing badly is to be governed well."

"Happiness consists not in sensory pleasures alone."

"The strength of character is built through adversity."

"Hope is a waking dream."

"In the spring, love is in the air."

"The measure of a man is what he does with power."