Montesquieu Quotes

Solemnity is the shield of idiots

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

...when the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.

Democratic and aristocratic states are not in their own nature free. Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments; and even in these it is not always found. It is there only when there is no abuse of power. 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.

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

Very good laws may be ill timed.

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

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.

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

La liberté est le droit de faire ce que les lois permettent.

In vain do we seek tranquility in the desert; temptations are always with us; our passions, represented by the demons, never let us alone: those monsters created by the heart, those illusions produced by the mind, those vain specters that are our errors and our lies always appear before us to seduce us; they attack us even in our fasting or our mortifications, in other words, in our very strength.

With truths of a certain kind, it is not enough to make them appear convincing: one must also make them felt. Of such kind are moral truths.

One more organ or one less in our body would give us a different intelligence. In fact, all the established laws as to why our body is a certain way would be different if our body were not that way.

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

Every man is capable of doing good to another, but to contribute to the happiness of an entire society is to become akin to the gods