Montesquieu Quotes

In the state of nature ... all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

My dear Usbek, when women feel, as they lose their attractiveness, that their end is coming in advance, they would like to go backwards to youth again. How could they possibly not attempt to deceive other people? - they make every effort to deceive themselves, and to escape from the most distressing thought we can have. ~ Montesquieu

The majority of men are more capable of great actions than of good ones. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise. ~ Montesquieu

There is no one, says another, whom fortune does not visit once in his life; but when she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door, and flies out at the window. ~ Charles De Montesquieu

The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver. ~ Charles De Montesquieu

Happy the people whose annals are boring to read. ~ Charles-Louis De Secondat, Baron De La Brede Et De Montesquieu

[Montesquieu] lifted the veil from the venerable errors which enslaved opinion, and pointed the way to those luminous truths of which he had but a glimpse himself. ~ James Madison

In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed. ~ Charles De Montesquieu

Now, there is no such thing as 'man' in this world. In my life I have seen Frenchmen, Italians, Russians, and so on. I even know, thanks to Montesquieu, that one can be Persian. But as for man, I declare I've never encountered him. ~ Joseph De Maistre

The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed. ~ Montesquieu

There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion. ~ Charles De Montesquieu

When the savages of Louisiana are desirous of fruit, they cut the tree to the root and gather the fruit. This is an emblem of despotic government. ~ Montesquieu

May the new era be an era of liberty and respect for everyone
including writers! Only through liberty and respect for culture can Europe be saved from the cruel days of which Montesquieu spoke in the Esprit des lois: "Thus, in the days of fables, after the floods and deluges, there came forth from the soil armed men who exterminated each other." Boook XXXII, Chapter XXIII. ~ Curzio Malaparte

It is difficult for the united states to be all of equal power and extent. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

[The Pope] will make the king believe that three are only one, that the bread he eats is not bread ... and a thousand other things of the same kind. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our school masters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us. ~ Montesquieu

Wonderful maxim: not to talk of things any more after they are done. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

As men are affected in all ages by the same passions, the occasions which bring about great changes are different, but the causes are always the same. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

The love of democracy is that of equality. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

The pagan religion, which prohibited only some of the grosser crimes, and which stopped the hand but meddled not with the heart, might have crimes that were inexplicable. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Sometimes a man who deserves to be looked upon because he is a fool is despised only because he is a lawyer. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

In a republic there is no coercive force as in other governments, the laws must therefore endeavor to supply this defect. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual; and the spirit of extreme equality, which conducts it to despotism, as the despotism of a single individual finishes by conquest. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Countries are not cultivated in proportion to their fertility, but to their liberty. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

To succeed in the world we must look foolish but be wise. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Friendship is a contract in which we render small services in expectation of big ones. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Study has been for me the sovereign remedy against all the disappointments of life. I have never known any trouble that an hour's reading would not dissipate. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

What cowardice it is to be dismayed by the happiness of others and devastated by there good fortune. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice. ~ Montesquieu

Power should be a check on power. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

A rational army would run away. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war. ~ Charles De Montesquieu

Laws undertake to punish only overt acts. ~ Charles De Montesquieu

MOST legislators have been men of inferior capacity whom chance exalted over their fellows, and who took counsel almost exclusively of their own prejudices and whims.

It would seem that they had not even a sense of the greatness and dignity of their work: they amused themselves by framing childish institutions, well devised indeed to please small minds, but discrediting their authors with people of sense.

They flung themselves into useless details; and gave their attention to individual interests: the sign of the narrow genius, which grasps things piecemeal and cannot take a general view.

Some of them have been so affected as to employ another language than the vernacular-a ridiculous thing in a framer of laws; for how can they be obeyed if they are not known?

They have often abolished needlessly those which were already established-that is to say, they have plunged nations into the confusion which always accompanies change.

It is true that, by reason of some extravagance springing rather from the nature than from the mind of man, it is sometimes necessary to change certain laws. But the case is rare; and when it happens it requires the most delicate handling; much solemnity ought to be observed, and endless precautions taken, in order to lead the people to the natural conclusion that the laws are most sacred, since so many formalities are necessary to their abrogation.

Often they have made them too subtle, fol ~ Montesquieu

We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death. ~ Charles De Montesquieu

When a government is arrived to that degree of corruption as to be incapable of reforming itself, it would not lose much by being new moulded. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies; their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently monarchical, but in reality it is more oppressive than monarchy, as the experience of all ages and countries evinces. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

If I knew something that would serve my country but would harm mankind, I would never reveal it; for I am a citizen of humanity first and by necessity, and a citizen of France second, and only by accident ~ Baron De Montesquieu

It is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

This punishment of death is the remedy, as it were, of a sick society. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Virtue has needs of limits. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations. ~ Montesquieu

I have always been interested in this man. My father had a set of Tom Paine's books on the shelf at home. I must have opened the covers about the time I was 13. And I can still remember the flash of enlightenment which shone from his pages. It was a revelation, indeed, to encounter his views on political and religious matters, so different from the views of many people around us. Of course I did not understand him very well, but his sincerity and ardor made an impression upon me that nothing has ever served to lessen.

I have heard it said that Paine borrowed from Montesquieu and Rousseau. Maybe he had read them both and learned something from each. I do not know. But I doubt that Paine ever borrowed a line from any man...

Many a person who could not comprehend Rousseau, and would be puzzled by Montesquieu, could understand Paine as an open book. He wrote with a clarity, a sharpness of outline and exactness of speech that even a schoolboy should be able to grasp. There is nothing false, little that is subtle, and an impressive lack of the negative in Paine. He literally cried to his reader for a comprehending hour, and then filled that hour with such sagacious reasoning as we find surpassed nowhere else in American letters - seldom in any school of writing.

Paine would have been the last to look upon himself as a man of letters. Liberty was the dear companion of his heart; truth in all things his object.

...we, perhaps, remember him ~ Thomas A. Edison

In every government there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that depend on the civil law. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Coffee renders many foolish people temporarily capable of wise actions ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Democracy is corrupted not only when the spirit of equality is corrupted, but likewise when they fall into a spirit of extreme equality. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Brutes are deprived of the high advantages which we have; but they have some which we have not. They have not our hopes, but theyare without our fears; they are subject like us to death, but without knowing it; even most of them are more attentive than we to self-preservation, and do not make so bad a use of their passions. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

We ought to be very cautious and circumspect in the prosecution of magic and heresy. The attempt to put down these two crimes may be extremely perilous to liberty. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

I never listen to calumnies, because if they are untrue I run the risk of being deceived, and if they be true, of hating persons not worth thinking about. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

There is a very good saying that if triangles invented a god, they would make him three-sided. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

I should like to abolish funerals; the time to mourn a person is at his birth, not his death. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Honor sets all the parts of the body politic in motion, and by its very action connects them; thus each individual advances the public good, while he only thinks of promoting his own interest. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

I like peasants-they are not sophisticated enough to reason speciously. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Rhedi: I am always afraid that they will eventually succeed in discovering some secret which will provide a quicker way of making men die, and exterminate whole countries and nations.
Usbek: No, if such a fateful invention came to be discovered, it would soon be banned by international law; by the unanimous consent of every country the discovery would be buried. ~ Montesquieu

For a country, everything will be lost when the jobs of an economist and a banker become highly respected professions. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

It is unreasonable ... to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

The false notion of miracles comes of our vanity, which makes us believe we are important enough for the Supreme Being to upset nature on our behalf. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Vanity and pride of nations; vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

In the birth of societies it is the chiefs of states who give it its special character; and afterward it is this special character that forms the chiefs of state. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Honor is unknown in despotic states. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

This led Montesquieu to become one of the earliest proponents of the trade theory of peace when he observed that hunting and herding nations often found themselves in conflict and wars, whereas trading nations "became reciprocally dependent," making peace "the natural effect of trade." The psychology behind the effect, Montesquieu speculated, was exposure of different societies to customs and manners different from their own, which leads to "a cure for the most destructive prejudices." Thus, he concluded, "we see that in countries where the people move only by the spirit of commerce, they make a traffic of all the humane, all the moral virtues. ~ Michael Shermer

In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state. ~ Charles De Montesquieu

We are so blind that we know neither when to mourn, nor when to rejoice; our mirth and our sadness are nearly always false. ~ Montesquieu

Another much-discussed question is, whether women are intended by nature to be subject to men."No," said a very gallant philosopher to me the other day; "nature never dictated any such law.The dominion which we exercise over them is tyrannical; they yield themselves to men only because they are more tender-hearted, and consequently more human and more rational.These advantages, which, had we been reasonable, would, without doubt, have been the cause of their subordination, because we are irrational.

"Now, if it is true that it is a tyrannical power which we have over women, it is none the less true that they exercise over us a natural dominion- that of beauty, which nothing can resist.Our power does not extend to all countries, but that of beauty is universal.Why, then, should we have any privilege?Is it because we are stronger than they?But that would be the height of injustice.We use every possible means to discourage them.Our powers would be found equal if we were educated alike.Try women in those gifts which education has not weakened, and we soon will see which is the abler sex. ~ Montesquieu

The spirit of commerce ... renders every man willing to live on his own property ... & prevents the growth of luxury. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Europe is a state with several provinces ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Laws, in their most general signification, are the necessary relations arising from the nature of things. In this sense all beings have their laws: the Deity His laws, the material world its laws, the intelligences superior to man their laws, the beasts their laws, man his laws. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Trade is the best cure for prejudice. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Nature, in her wisdom, seems to have arranged it so that men's stupidity should be ephemeral, and books make them immortal. A fool ought to be content having exacerbated everyone around him, but he insists tormenting future generations. ~ Montesquieu

Knowledge humanizes mankind, and reason inclines to mildness; but prejudices eradicate every tender disposition. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

A love of the republic in a democracy is a love of the democracy, as the latter is that of equality. A love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality. Since every individual ought here to enjoy the same happiness, and the same advantages, they should consequently taste the same pleasures and form the same hopes, which cannot be expected but from a general frugality. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Great commanders write their actions with simplicity; because they receive more glory from facts than from words. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

No tyranny is more cruel than the one practised in the shadow of the laws and under color of justice - when, so to speak, one proceeds to drown the unfortunate on the very plank by which they had saved themselves. And since a tyrant never lacks instruments for his tyranny, Tiberius always found judges ready to condemn as many people as he might suspect. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Christians are beginning to lose the spirit of intolerance which animated them ... They have realized that zeal for the advancement of religion is different from a due attachment to it; and that in order to love it and fulfil its behests, it is not necessary to hate and persecute those who are opposed to it. ~ Montesquieu

There is hardly any grief that an hour's reading will not dissipate. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century. ~ Charles De Montesquieu

There are countries where a man is worth nothing; there are others where he is worth less than nothing. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

It is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Vitam Impendere Vero (I consecrate my life to truth). ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Men in excess of happiness or misery are equally inclined to severity. Witness conquerors and monks! It is mediocrity alone, and a mixture of prosperous and adverse fortune that inspire us with lenity and pity. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it and avarice possesses the whole community. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Many a person who could not comprehend Rousseau, and would be puzzled by Montesquieu, could understand Paine as an open book. He wrote with a clarity, a sharpness of outline and exactness of speech that even a schoolboy should be able to grasp. ~ Thomas A. Edison

In vain do we seek tranquility in the desert; temptations are always with us; our passions, represented by the demons, never let us alone: those monsters created by the heart, those illusions produced by the mind, those vain specters that are our errors and our lies always appear before us to seduce us; they attack us even in our fasting or our mortifications, in other words, in our very strength. ~ Montesquieu

Political liberty in a citizen is that tranquillity of spirit which comes from the opinion each one has of his security, and in order for him to have this liberty the government must be such that one citizen cannot fear another citizen. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Montesquieu wrote: "I have never known any distress that an hour of reading did not relieve." If one substituted the word music for reading, the exact same dictum applied to me. ~ Zhu Xiao-Mei

Montesquieu well knew, and justly admired, the happy constitution of this country [Great Britain], where fixed and known laws equally restrain monarchy from tyranny and liberty from licentiousness. ~ Lord Chesterfield

When God endowed human beings with brains, He did not intend to guarantee them. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

When the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost. ~ Montesquieu

We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty. ~ Charles De Montesquieu

Liberty ... is there only when there is no abuse of power. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

If only we wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is difficult, since we think them happier than they are. ~ Montesquieu

The power of divorce can be given only to those who feel the inconveniences of marriage, and who are sensible of the moment when it is for their interest to make them cease. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Never create by law what can be accomplished by morality. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

Love of reading enables a man to exchange the weary hours, which come to every one, for hours of delight. ~ Baron De Montesquieu

The harshest tyranny is that which acts under the protection of legality and the banner of justice. ~ Baron De Montesquieu