Baron De Montesquieu Quotes
Top 100 wise famous quotes and sayings by Baron De Montesquieu
Baron De Montesquieu Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from Baron De Montesquieu on Wise Famous 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.
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.
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.
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.
The incomparable stupidity of life teaches us to love our parents; divine philosophy teaches us to forgive them.
There is as yet no liberty if the power of judging be not separated from legislative power and the executrix
When the [law making] and [law enforcement] powers are united in the same person ... there can be no liberty.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The crime against nature will never make any great progress in society unless people are prompted to it by some particular custom.
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.
Knowledge humanizes mankind, and reason inclines to mildness; but prejudices eradicate every tender disposition.
In a republic there is no coercive force as in other governments, the laws must therefore endeavor to supply this defect.
Nature is just to all mankind, and repays them for their industry. She renders them industrious by annexing rewards in proportion to their labor.
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.
When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it and avarice possesses the whole community.