Montesquieu Quotes

Ces auteurs, me repartit-il, n'ont point cherché dans l'Ecriture ce qu'il faut croire, mais ce qu'ils croient eux-mêmes; ils

[An author is] a fool who, not content with boring everyone around him during his lifetime, insists on boring generations yet to come.

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

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.

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

Souvent ils les ont faites trop subtiles, et ont suivi des idées logiciennes plutôt que l’équité naturelle. Dans la suite elles ont été trouvées trop dures, et par un esprit d’équité on a cru devoir s’en écarter ; mais ce remède était un nouveau mal. Quelles que soient les lois, il faut toujours les suivre, et les regarder comme la conscience publique, à laquelle celle des particuliers doit se conformer toujours.

Nature, in her wisdom, seems to have arranged it so that men's stupidities should be ephemeral, and books make them immortal. A fool ought to be content with having exasperated everyone around him, but he insists on tormenting future generations; he wants his foolishness to overcome the oblivion which he might have enjoyed like a tomb; he wants posterity to be informed that he existed, and to be aware for ever that he was a fool.

" "On s'étonne de ce qu'il n'y a presque jamais de changement dans le gouvernement des princes d'Orient. D'où vient cela, si ce n'est de ce qu'il est tyrannique et affreux ?

Si je savais une chose utile à ma nation qui fût rui­neuse à une autre, je ne la pro­po­se­rais pas à mon prince, parce que je suis homme avant d’être Français, parce que je suis néces­sai­re­ment homme, et que je ne suis Français que par hasard

The Jewish religion is an ancient tree, from which have sprung two branches that cover the whole earth: Muhammadanism and Christianity; or rather, it is a mother who bore two daughters who have wounded her in a thousand places:

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.

Christians are beginning to lose the spirit of intolerance which animated them... They have realized that zeal for the advancement of religion is different from a due attachment to it; and that in order to love it and fulfil its behests, it is not necessary to hate and persecute those who are opposed to it.

A truly virtuous man would come to the aid of the most distant stranger as quickly as to his own friend.
If men were perfectly virtuous, they wouldn’t have friends.

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

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.