We were happy, and wished to make all happy around us. False pleasures make men haughty and severe, and such pleasures are always selfish. But true happiness inspires gentleness and benevolence, and diffuses its influence on very hand.
[Nous étions heureux, & nous voulions vivre avec des gens qui le fussent. Le bonheur faux rend les hommes durs & superbes, & ce bonheur ne se communique point. Le vrai bonheur les rend doux et sensibles, & ce bonheur se partage toujours.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755) French political philosopher
“Arsaces and Ismenia [Arsace et Isménie]" (1742) [tr. 1797]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montesquieu/86500/
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