Montesquieu
There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.Collection: Fear
Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?Collection: Religion
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.Collection: Society
To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.Collection: Great
An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.Collection: War
Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Peace
We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death.Collection: Death
When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.Collection: Power
We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.Collection: Independence
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.Collection: Religion
A man should be mourned at his birth, not at his death.Collection: Death
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.Collection: Experience
Power ought to serve as a check to power.Collection: Power
The less men think, the more they talk.Collection: Men
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.Collection: War
Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people.Collection: Men
There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.Collection: Government
If triangles had a god, they would give him three sides.Collection: God
The object of war is victory; that of victory is conquest; and that of conquest preservation.Collection: War
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.Collection: Happiness
Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.Collection: Friendship
I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.Collection: Fear
Peace is a natural effect of trade.Collection: Peace
The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles.Collection: Government
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.Collection: Religion
There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.
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.
No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.
I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise.
Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
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.
There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.
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.
You have to study a great deal to know a little.
Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer.
The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.
I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise.
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.
It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.
The reason the Romans built their great paved highways was because they had such inconvenient footwear.
Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.
To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.
Weak minds exaggerate too much the wrong done to the Africans.
It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.
Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.
Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.
In bodies moved, the motion is received, increased, diminished, or lost, according to the relations of the quantity of matter and velocity; each diversity is uniformity, each change is constancy.
What orators lack in depth they make up for in length.
They who assert that a blind fatality produced the various effects we behold in this world talk very absurdly; for can anything be more unreasonable than to pretend that a blind fatality could be productive of intelligent beings?