1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Hugo Grotius

Hugo Grotius Quotes

Hugo Grotius , also known as Huig de Groot or Hugo de Groot , was a Dutch jurist. Along with the earlier works of Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili, Grotius laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law. A teenage intellectual prodigy, he was imprisoned for his involvement in the intra-Calvinist disputes of the Dutch Republic, but escaped hidden in a chest of books. He wrote most of his major works in exile in France.

It is thought that Hugo Grotius was not the first to formulate the international society doctrine, but he was one of the first to define expressly the idea of one society of states, governed not by force or warfare but by actual laws and mutual agreement to enforce those laws. As Hedley Bull declared in 1990: "The idea of international society which Grotius propounded was given concrete expression in the Peace of Westphalia, and Grotius may be considered the intellectual father of this first general peace settlement of modern times."

Additionally, his contributions to Arminian theology provided the seeds for later Arminian-based movements, such as Methodism and Pentecostalism, and he is acknowledged as a significant figure in the Arminianism-Calvinism debate. Because of his theological underpinning of free trade, he is also considered an "economic theologist".

✵ 10. April 1583 – 28. August 1645
Hugo Grotius photo
Hugo Grotius: 4   quotes 5   likes

Famous Hugo Grotius Quotes

“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.”

Hugo Grotius

Source: The Free Sea

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

Hugo Grotius

As quoted in Delbert D. Thiessen (ed.), A Sociobiology Compendium: Aphorisms, Sayings, Asides, p. 18

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

Hugo Grotius

As quoted in Wendy Toliver (ed.), The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Inspirational Quotes, p. 466

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

Hugo Grotius

As quoted in The Word Book Complete Word Power Library, Volume 1 (1981), p. 324

Similar authors

Claude Adrien Helvétius photo
Claude Adrien Helvétius 8
French philosopher
Baruch Spinoza photo
Baruch Spinoza 210
Dutch philosopher
Immanuel Kant photo
Immanuel Kant 200
German philosopher
Jean Jacques Rousseau photo
Jean Jacques Rousseau 91
Genevan philosopher
Jean de La Bruyère photo
Jean de La Bruyère 65
17th-century French writer and philosopher
David Hume photo
David Hume 138
Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian
Friedrich Schiller photo
Friedrich Schiller 111
German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright
Marquis de Sade photo
Marquis de Sade 30
French novelist and philosopher
René Descartes photo
René Descartes 47
French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist
Johann Gottfried Herder photo
Johann Gottfried Herder 18
German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic