Montesquieu Quotes

...there are few truths important enough to justify paining and reproving others for not knowing them...

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

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

La société est fondée sur un avantage mutuel.

La plupart des législateurs ont été des hommes bornés, que le hasard a mis à la tête des autres, et qui n'ont presque consulté que leurs préjugés et leurs fantaisies.

Il est vrai qu'elles ne s'y livrent guère dans leur jeunesse que pour favoriser une passion plus chère; mais, à mesure qu'elles vieillissent, leur passion pour le jeu semble rajeunir, et cette passion remplit tout le vide des autres. Elles veulent ruiner leurs maris et, pour y parvenir, elles ont des moyens pour tous les âges, depuis la plus tendre jeunesse jusques à la vieillesse la plus décrépite : les habits et les équipages commencent le dérangement; la coquetterie l'augmente; le jeu l'achève.

It is possible that the law, which is clear sighted in one sense, and blind in another,
might, in some cases, be too severe. But as we have already observed, the national judges are no more than the mouth that pronounces the words of the law, mere passive beings, incapable of moderating either its force or rigor. That part, therefore, of the legislative body, which we have just now observed to be a necessary tribunal on another occasion, also is a necessary tribunal in this; it belongs to its supreme authority to moderate the law in favor of the law itself, by mitigating the sentence.

If a human creature is composed of two beings, and if the acknowledgment of the necessity of preserving their union is the chief mark of submission to the decrees of our Creator, that necessity should be made a religious law; and if the enforced preservation of this union will make men more responsible for their actions, it should be made a civil law.

[92] Plato, in his fourth book of Laws, says that the præfectures of music and gymnic exercises are the most important employments in the city; and, in his Republic, iii, Damon will tell you, says he, what sounds are capable of corrupting the mind with base sentiments, or of inspiring the contrary virtues.

- « Ces règles sont un rapport constamment établi. Entre un corps mû et un autre corps mû, c’est suivant les rapports de la masse et de la vitesse que tous les mouvements sont reçus, augmentés, diminués, perdus ; chaque diversité est uniformité, chaque changement est constance. » Montesquieu, De l’Esprit des Lois, 1748, Ch. 1,

Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it.

"The political liberty, of the subject, (separation of powers), is a tranquility of mind arising from the opinion each person has of [their] safety. In order to have this liberty. It is requisite the government be so constituted as one [person] need not to be afraid of another."

Baron de Montesquieu,
Spirit of laws
1748

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

In every government there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that depend on the civil law.
By virtue of the first, the prince or magistrate enacts temporary or perpetual laws, and amends or abrogates those that have been already enacted. By the second, he makes peace or war, sends or receives embassies, establishes the public security, and provides against invasions. By the third, he punishes criminals, or determines the disputes that arise between individuals. The latter we shall call the judiciary power, and the other, simply, the executive power of the state.
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.
Again, there is no liberty if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive. Were it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control; for the judge would be then the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with violence and oppression.
There would be an end of every thing, were the same man, or the same body, whether of the nobles or of the people, to exercise those three powers, that of enacting laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and of trying the causes of individuals.
The executive power ought to be in the hands of a monarch, because this branch of government, having need of dispatch, is better administered by one than by many: on the other hand, whatever depends on the legislative power, is oftentimes better regulated by many than by a single person.
But, if there were no monarch, and the executive power should be committed to a certain number of persons, selected from the legislative body, there would be an end of liberty, by reason the two powers would be united; as the same persons would sometimes possess, and would be always able to possess, a share in both.

Rhedi: I am always afraid that they will eventually succeed in discovering some secret which will provide a quicker way of making men die, and exterminate whole countries and nations.

Usbek: No, if such a fateful invention came to be discovered, it would soon be banned by international law; by the unanimous consent of every country the discovery would be buried.