Montesquieu Quotes

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

Paris est peut-être la ville du monde la plus sensuelle, et où l'on raffine le plus sur les plaisirs; mais c'est peut-être celle où l'on mène une vie plus dure. Pour qu'un homme vive délicieusement, il faut que cent autres travaillent sans relâche.

The good sense and happiness of individuals largely consists in their having middling talents and fortunes. If a republic whose laws have formed many middling people is composed of sober people, it will be governed soberly; if it is composed of happy people, it will be very happy.

As-tu bien réfléchi à l'état barbare et malheureux où nous entraînerait la perte des arts ?

La nature, industrieuse en faveur des hommes, ne s'est pas bornée à leur donner les désirs : elle a voulu que nous en eussions nous-mêmes,

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.

Nothing is a greater obstacle to our progress in knowledge, than a bad performance of a celebrated author; because, before we instruct we must begin with undeceiving.

"[245] "In large and populous cities," says the author of the Fable of the Bees, i, p. 133, "they wear clothes above their rank, and, consequently, have the pleasure of being esteemed by a vast majority, not as what they are, but what they appear to be.

"تحدث مونتسكييو في كتاب "روح القانون" عن أثر المناخ والتربة في حياة الإنسان:

1- المناخ:

المناخ البارد: شجاعة- نقاء النفس- قوة جسدية.

المناخ الحار: جبن- مكر- ضعف.

2- التربة:

يصل تأثير التربة إلى الحد السياسي ونوع الحكومات:

- التربة الخصبة = نظام ملكي وديكتاتورية.

- التربة الفقيرة = نظام جمهوري وديمقراطية.

- سكان الجزر = الاستقلالية والاستقرار."

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

Translation: 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.

A person of my acquaintance said: . . .

'Study has always been for me the sovereign remedy against life's unpleasantness, since I have never experienced any sorrow that an hour's reading did not eliminate.

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

They maintain that all unlimited power must be unlawful, because it cannot have had a lawful origin. For, we cannot, say they, give to another more power over us than we ourselves have : now, we have not unlimited power over ourselves ; for example, we have no right to take our own lives: no one upon earth then, they conclude, had such a power.

"A person of my acquaintance said: . . .

"Study has always been for me the sovereign remedy against life's unpleasantness, since I have never experienced any sorrow that an hour's reading did not eliminate.