Baron De Montesquieu Quotes

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

[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.

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

A rational army would run away.

I have ever held it as a maxim never to do that through another which it was impossible for me to execute myself

The Ottoman Empire whose sick body was not supported by a mild and regular diet, but by a powerful treatment, which continually exhausted it.

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

Virtue is necessary to a republic.

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.

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

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.

Never create by law what can be accomplished by morality.

The incomparable stupidity of life teaches us to love our parents; divine philosophy teaches us to forgive them.

Liberty ... is there only when there is no abuse of power.

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

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

Trade is the best cure for prejudice.

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

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

There is as yet no liberty if the power of judging be not separated from legislative power and the executrix

Power should be a check on power.

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

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

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.

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.

The laws do not take upon them to punish any other than overt acts.

The English are busy folk; they have no time in which to be polite.

Fain would I glide down a gentle river, but I am carried away by a torrent.

The prejudices of superstition are superior to all others, and have the strongest influence on the human mind.

The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.

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

A man who writes well writes not as others write, but as he himself writes; it is often in speaking badly that he speaks well.

Countries are not cultivated in proportion to their fertility, but to their liberty.

Man is a social animal formed to please in society.

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

Injustice towards others is a threat to everybody

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

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

In constitutional states, liberty is compensation for heavy taxes; in dictatorships, the subsititue is light taxes.

Wherever I find envy I take a pleasure in provoking it: I always praise before an envious man those who make him grow pale.

Law should be like death, which spares no one.

Passion makes us feel, but never see clearly.

Christianity stamped its character on jurisprudence; for empire has ever a connection with the priesthood.

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.

Honor is unknown in despotic states.

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

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

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

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

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

At our coming into the world we contract an immense debt to our country, which we can never discharge.

Each citizen contributes to the revenues of the State a portion of his property in order that his tenure of the rest may be secure.

The culminating point of administration is to know well how much power, great or small, we ought to use in all circumstances.

When we seek after wit, we discover only foolishness.

Vanity and pride of nations; vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous.

It is always the adventurous who accomplish great things.

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

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

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

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

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

The crime against nature will never make any great progress in society unless people are prompted to it by some particular custom.

When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.

The state is the association of men, and not men themselves; the citizen may perish, and the man remain.

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

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

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

Wonderful maxim: not to talk of things any more after they are done.

Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.

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

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

Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.

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

Liberty itself has appeared intolerable to those nations who have not been accustomed to enjoy it.

A really intelligent man feels what other men only know.

I suffer from the disease of writing books and being ashamed of them when they are finished.

The English are busy; they don't have time to be polite.

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

The majority of men are more capable of great actions than of good ones.

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

An injustice to one is a threat made to all

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

Coffee renders many foolish people temporarily capable of wise actions

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 should like to abolish funerals; the time to mourn a person is at his birth, not his death.

Virtue has needs of limits.

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.

There have never been so many civil wars as in the Kingdom of Christ.

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

Europe is a state with several provinces

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

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

An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.

The love of democracy is that of equality.

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

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

Republics are brought to their ends by luxury; monarchies by poverty.

Slowness is frequently the cause of much greater slowness.

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

Oh, how empty is praise when it reflects back to its origin!