Montesquieu — "When a people is lazy, it attributes everything to fortune."

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

"There is no nation in the world that has more need of religion than the English."

"In every government there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that depend on the civil…"

"The savage peoples of America, who are fond of their liberty, and are passionately attached to their country, will not change their way of life for any other."

"The severity of the climate should render the laws more severe."