Montesquieu

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.

— Montesquieu

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.

— Montesquieu

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

— Montesquieu

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

— Montesquieu

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

— Montesquieu

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

— Montesquieu

The less men think, the more they talk.

— Montesquieu

Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.

— Montesquieu

I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.

— Montesquieu

We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death.

— Montesquieu

If triangles had a god, they would give him three sides.

— Montesquieu

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

— Montesquieu

Although born in a prosperous realm, we did not believe that its boundaries should limit our knowledge, and that the lore of the East should alone enlighten us.

— Montesquieu

Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.

— Montesquieu

The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles.

— Montesquieu

If one only wished to be happy, this could be horrible for the rest of civilisation; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.

— Montesquieu

In a free nation, it matters not whether individuals reason well or ill; it is sufficient that they do reason. Truth arises from the collision and from hence springs liberty, which is a security from the effects of reasoning.

— Montesquieu

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

— Montesquieu

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

— Montesquieu

[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.

— Montesquieu

I can assure you that no kingdom has ever had as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ.

— Montesquieu

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

— Montesquieu

A man should be mourned at his birth, not at his death.

— Montesquieu

In France there are three kinds of professions: the church, the sword, and the long robe. Each hath a sovereign contempt for the other two. For example, a man who ought to be despised only for being a fool is often so because he is a lawyer.

— Montesquieu

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.

— Montesquieu

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

— Montesquieu

History is full of religious wars; but, we must take care to observe, it was not the multiplicity of religions that produced these wars, it was the intolerating spirit which animated that one which thought she had the power of governing.

— Montesquieu

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.

— Montesquieu

I write to thee on this subject, [friend], because I am angry at a book which I have just left, which is so large, that it seems to contain universal science, but it hath almost split my head, without teaching me anything.

— Montesquieu

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

— Montesquieu

I acknowledge that history is full of religious wars: but we must distinguish; it is not the multiplicity of religions which has produced wars; it is the intolerant spirit animating that which believed itself in the ascendant.

— Montesquieu

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.

— Montesquieu

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.

— Montesquieu

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

— Montesquieu

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

— Montesquieu

One must give one power a ballast, so to speak, to put it in a position to resist another.

— Montesquieu

Although born in a prosperous realm, we did not believe that its boundaries should limit our knowledge, and that the lore of the East should alone enlighten us.

— Montesquieu