Charles de Montesquieu Quotes
"The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Moderation, Spirit)
"The severity of the laws prevents their execution."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Execution, Laws)
"The reason the Romans built their great paved highways was because they had such inconvenient footwear."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Reason)
"The less men think, the more they talk."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Men, Talk)
"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."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Apathy, Democracy, Public, Tyranny, Welfare)
"Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Success, Circumstances, Majority, Succeed)
"Useless laws weaken the necessary laws."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Laws)
"Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: God, Talent)
"There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Justice, Law, Name, Tyranny)
"There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Fear, Laws, Nation, Passion, Reason)
"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."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Life, Flies, Fortune, Visit)
"To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Love, Delight)
"We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Death, Men)
"What orators lack in depth they make up for in length."
- Charles de Montesquieu
"Peace is a natural effect of trade."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Peace, Effect, Trade)
"It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires."
- Charles de Montesquieu
"To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: People)
"I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Fool, Succeed, World)
"No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Blood, Christ)
"An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: War)
"Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Countries)
"Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Friendship, Favors)
"I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Reading)
"If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: God)
"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."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: People, Want)
"In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Success, Succeed)
"Laws undertake to punish only overt acts."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Laws)
"It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Age, People, Corruption)
"An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Content, Fool, Future, Generations)
"Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Death, Men)
"Liberty is the right to do what the law permits."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Law, Liberty, Right)
"False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Happiness, Men)
"Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Paris)
"Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: Luxury, Poverty)
"In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state."
- Charles de Montesquieu
(Related: State)