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But a prince, when he binds himself, does not bind himself alone, otherwise he would be in the same position as a private individual. Instead, he exposes great countries and great provinces to a thousand misfortunes. Therefore, it is better that he should break his contract rather than that the people should perish.

— Frederick II of Prussia

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More quotes by Frederick II of Prussia

A single Voltaire will do more honor to France than a thousand pedants, a thousand false wits, a thousand great men of inferior order.

Neither antiquity nor any other nation has imagined a more atrocious and blasphemous absurdity than that of eating God. — This is how Christians treat the autocrat of the universe.

It is a fact that princes who try to raise other princes with violence, end up destroying themselves.

I think it better to keep a profound silence with regard to the Christian fables, which are canonized by their antiquity and the credulity of absurd and insipid people.

The mountain is passed; now we shall get on better.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Frederick II of Prussia (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.