Hugo Grotius Quotes

“A man cannot govern a nation if he cannot govern a city; he cannot govern a city if he cannot govern a family; he cannot govern a family unless he can govern himself; and he cannot govern himself unless his passions are subject to reason.”

“By understanding many things, I have accomplished nothing.”

“Even God cannot make two times two not make four.”

“I have spent my life laboriously doing nothing.”

“Ignorance of certain subjects is a great part of wisdom.”

“Men rush to arms for slight causes, or no cause at all, and once taken up there is no longer any respect for law, divine or human.”

“Not to know certain things is a great part of wisdom.”

“So is there no kind of life more wicked than that of mercenary Soldiers, who without any respect had to the equity of the Cause, fight only for plunder and pay.”

“Tis long ere time can mitigate your grief;
To wisdom fly, she quickly brings relief.”

“The sanctity of an oath with regard to promises, agreements, and contracts, has
always been held in the greatest esteem, in every age and among every people.”

“It is no less ancient than a pestilent error wherewith many men (but they chiefly who abound in power and riches) persuade themselves, or (as I think more truly) go about to persuade, that right and wrong are distinguished not according to their own nature but by a certain vain opinion and custom of men.”

“There is none of you who would not publicly exclaim that everyone should be moderator and arbitrator in his own matter, who would not command all citizens to use rivers and public places equally and indifferently, who would not with all his power defend the liberty of going hither and thither and trading.”

“A state is a perfect body of free men, united together to enjoy common rights and advantages.”

“Liberty is the power that we have over ourselves.”

“I saw in the whole Christian world a license of fighting at which even barbarous nations might blush. Wars were begun on trifling pretexts or none at all, and carried on without any reference of law, Divine or human.”