I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.
Baron De MontesquieuRead
Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that the struggles of life are more significant than the end of life itself.
Baron De Montesquieu's quote emphasizes the idea that the challenges and hardships encountered throughout life are deserving of attention and concern, rather than the sadness that comes with death. It reflects a philosophical perspective that values the journey of life and the experiences that shape us, highlighting a need for compassion towards those who are born into difficult circumstances, as opposed to sorrow solely directed at mortality.
In practice
During a graduation speech to highlight the importance of overcoming challenges in life.
I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.
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.
To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.
Love of the republic in a democracy, is a love of the democracy; love of the democracy is that of equality. Love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality.
It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.
If you would be holy, instruct your children, because all the good acts they perform will be imputed to you.
I hate extremes of any kind. Communism [seeks] the domination of the state over the individual... All my life I have stood against banning Communism or other extremist organisations because, if you do that, they go underground and it gives them an excitement that they don't get if they are allowed to pursue their policies openly. We'll beat them into the ground on argument...
It is reckless to make broad generalizations about any group of people.
Racism is a refuge for the ignorant. It seeks to divide and to destroy. It is the enemy of freedom, and deserves to be met head-on and stamped out.
Consciousness does not just passively reflect the objective material world; it plays an active role in creating reality itself.
We all have some experience of a feeling, that comes over us occasionally, of what we are saying and doing having been said and done before, in a remote time - of our having been surrounded, dim ages ago, by the same faces, objects, and circumstances.
A night of endless dreams, inconsequent and wild, is this my life; none more worth telling than the rest.
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