Baron de Montesquieu Quotes

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

Virtue has needs of limits.

If triangles had a god, he would have three sides.

The wickedness of mankind makes it necessary for the law to suppose them better than they really are.

It is clear that in a monarchy, where he who commands the exceution of the laws generally thinks himself above them, there is lessneed of virtue than in a popular government, where the person entrusted with the execution of the laws is sensible of his being subject to their direction.

Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.

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.

It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.

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.

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

The reason the Romans built their great paved highways was because they had such inconvenient footwear.

What orators lack in depth they make up for in length.

One more organ or one less in our body would give us a different intelligence. In fact, all the established laws as to why our body is a certain way would be different if our body were not that way.

There are bad examples which are worse than crimes; and more states have perished from the violation of morality than from the violation of law.

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.

Law should be like death, which spares no one.

To succeed in the world we must look foolish but be wise.

Certain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.

Peace is a natural effect of trade.

The severity of the laws prevents their execution.

Human laws made to direct the will ought to give precepts, and not counsels.

A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.

No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.

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

I shall ever repeat it, that mankind are governed not by extremes, but by principals of moderation.

The Christian religion is a stranger to mere despotic power. The mildness so frequently recommended in the Gospel is incompatible with the despotic rage.

Politics are a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by slow progression.

Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.

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

I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.

The alms given to a naked man in the street do not fulfil the obligations of the state, which owes to every citizen a certain subsistence, a proper nourishment, convenient clothing, and a kind of life not incompatible with health.

When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.

There is something in animals beside the power of motion. They are not machines; they feel.

Nature is just to all mankind, and repays them for their industry. She renders them industrious by annexing rewards in proportion to their labor.

I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise.

I acknowledge that history is full of religious wars: but we must distinguish; it is not the multiplicity of religions which has produced these wars; it was the intolerating spirit which animated that one which thought she had the power of governing.

Friendship is a contract in which we render small services in expectation of big ones.

Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.

I shall be obliged to wander to the right and to the left, that I may investigate and discover the truth.

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.

A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century.

To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.

Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.

A rational army would run away.

There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.

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.

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

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.