Baron de Montesquieu Quotes

I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.

Vitam Impendere Vero (I consecrate my life to truth).

Very good laws may be ill timed.

It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.

Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune.

The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.

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

As soon as man enters into a state of society he loses the sense of his weakness; equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.

Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer.

When the [law making] and [law enforcement] powers are united in the same person... there can be no liberty.

Power ought to serve as a check to power.

That anyone who possesses power has a tendency to abuse it is an eternal truth. They tend to go as far as the barriers will allow.

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

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.

The life of man is but a succession of vain hopes and groundless fears.

The history of commerce is that of the communication of the people.

If you run after wit, you will succeed in catching folly.

The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country.

The spirit of commerce is frugality, economy, moderation, labor, ponderance, tranquillity, order, and rule. So long as this spirit subsides, the riches it produces have no bad effect. The mischief is when excessive wealth destroys the spirit of commerce, then it is that the conveniences of inequality... are felt.

There is hardly any grief that an hour's reading will not dissipate.

The less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect.

Experience constantly proves that every man who has power is impelled to abuse it; he goes on till he is pulled up by some limits. Who would say it! virtue even has need of limits.

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

Better it is to say that the government most comfortable to nature is that which best agrees with the humor and disposition of the people in whose favor it is established.

Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.

It is rare to find learned men who are clean, do not stink and have a sense of humour.

When the savages of Louisiana wish to have fruit, they cut the tree at the bottom and gather the fruit. That is exactly a despotic government.

We ought to be very cautious in the prosecution of magic and heresy. The attempt to put down these two crimes may be extremely perilous to liberty, and may be the origin of a number of petty acts of tyranny if the legislator be not on his guard; for as such an accusation does not bear directly on the overt acts of a citizen, but refers to the idea we entertain of his character.

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.

Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.

In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.

Solemnity is the shield of idiots

Christians are beginning to lose the spirit of intolerance which animated them: experience has shown the error of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and of the persecution of those Christians in France whose belief differed a little from that of the king. 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.

If you would be holy, instruct your children, because all the good acts they perform will be imputed to you.

Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.

Virtue in a republic is the love of one's country, that is the love of equality.

Trade is the best cure for prejudice.

Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less men think, the more they talk.

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.

Love of the republic in a democracy, is a love of the democracy; love of the democracy is that of equality. Love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality.

This punishment of death is the remedy, as it were, of a sick society.

As virtue is necessary in a republic, and honor in a monarchy, fear is what is required in a despotism. As for virtue, it is not at all necessary, and honor would be dangerous there.

If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman... because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.

Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.

Republics come to an end by luxurious habits; monarchies by poverty.

I like peasants-they are not sophisticated enough to reason speciously.

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.