Baron de montesquieu quotes

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

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

Passion makes us feel, but never see clearly.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.

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

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

People here argue about religion interminably, but it appears that they are competing at the same time to see who can be the least devout.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Honor is unknown in despotic states.

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 no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.

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 severity of the laws prevents their execution.

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

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.

Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.

You have to study a great deal to know a little.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

They who love to inform themselves, are never idle. Though I have no business of consequence to take care of, I am nevertheless continually employed. I spend my life in examining things: I write down in the evening whatever I have remarked, what I have seen, and what I have heard in the day: every thing engages my attention, and every thing excites my wonder: I am like an infant, whose organs, as yet tender, are strongly affected by the slightest objects.

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

A prince who loves and fears religion is a lion who stoops to the hand that strokes or to the voice that appeases him. He who fears and hates religion is like the savage beast that growls and bites the chain, which prevents his flying on the passenger. He who has no religion at all is that terrible animal who perceives his liberty only when he tears in pieces, and when he devours.

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

The law of nations is naturally founded on this principle, that different nations ought in time of peace to do one another all the good they can, and in time of war as little injury as possible, without prejudicing their real interests.

An injustice to one is a threat made to all

Laws, in their most general signification, are the necessary relations derived from the nature of things.

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

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

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.

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

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

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

Coffee renders many foolish people temporarily capable of wise actions

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

There should be weeping at a man's birth, not at his death.

If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier that other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are. you are comparing your lot with an ideal which is of course better and therefore you feel worse

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

Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.

Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.

An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.

There are only two cases in which war is just: first, in order to resist the aggression of an enemy, and second, in order to help an ally who has been attacked.

If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, and that is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.

Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.

An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.

Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.

Never create by law what can be accomplished by morality.

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

A really intelligent man feels what other men only know.

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

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.

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.

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

With truths of a certain kind, it is not enough to make them appear convincing: one must also make them felt. Of such kind are moral truths.

[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.

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

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

Peace is a natural effect of trade.

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

Power ought to serve as a check to power.

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

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

Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.

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

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.

Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people.

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.

Europe is a state with several provinces

Law in general is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth: the political and civil laws of each nation ought to be only the particular cases in which human reason is applied.

But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.

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

Power should be a check on power.

What unhappy beings men are! They constantly waver between false hopes and silly fears, and instead of relying on reason they create monsters to frighten themselves with, and phantoms which lead them astray.

Law should be like death, which spares no one.

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

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

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

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

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.

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 tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.

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

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

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

Solemnity is the shield of idiots

When a government lasts a long while, it deteriorates by insensible degrees. Republics end through luxury, monarchies through poverty.

It is always the adventurous who accomplish great things.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

There is only one thing that can form a bond between men, and that is gratitude... we cannot give someone else greater power over us than we have ourselves.

Ever since the invention of gunpowder.. I continually tremble lest men should, in the end, uncover some secret which would provide a short way of abolishing mankind, of annihilating peoples and nations in their entirety.

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

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.

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

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

Trade is the best cure for prejudice.

Injustice towards others is a threat to everybody