Baron de Montesquieu

A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight.

— Baron de Montesquieu

The majority of men are more capable of great actions than of good ones.

— Baron de Montesquieu

There is hardly any grief that an hour's reading will not dissipate.

— Baron de Montesquieu

The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.

— Baron de Montesquieu

The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.

— Baron de Montesquieu

Republics are brought to their ends by luxury; monarchies by poverty.

— Baron de Montesquieu

Liberty... is there only when there is no abuse of power.

— Baron de Montesquieu

Slowness is frequently the cause of much greater slowness.

— Baron de Montesquieu

Democracy is corrupted not only when the spirit of equality is corrupted, but likewise when they fall into a spirit of extreme…

— Baron de Montesquieu

Men in excess of happiness or misery are equally inclined to severity. Witness conquerors and monks! It is mediocrity alone, and a…

— Baron de Montesquieu

In the birth of societies it is the chiefs of states who give it its special character; and afterward it is this…

— Baron de Montesquieu

The power of divorce can be given only to those who feel the inconveniences of marriage, and who are sensible of the…

— Baron de Montesquieu

When the [law making] and [law enforcement] powers are united in the same person... there can be no liberty.

— Baron de Montesquieu

To lend money without interest, is certainly an action laudable and extremely good; but it is obvious, that it is only a…

— Baron de Montesquieu

For a country, everything will be lost when the jobs of an economist and a banker become highly respected professions.

— Baron de Montesquieu

As men are affected in all ages by the same passions, the occasions which bring about great changes are different, but the…

— Baron de Montesquieu

There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies; their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently…

— Baron de Montesquieu

A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.

— Baron de Montesquieu

There is something in animals beside the power of motion. They are not machines; they feel.

— Baron de Montesquieu

It is always the adventurous who accomplish great things.

— Baron de Montesquieu

At our coming into the world we contract an immense debt to our country, which we can never discharge.

— Baron de Montesquieu

A really intelligent man feels what other men only know.

— Baron de Montesquieu

When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.

— Baron de Montesquieu

I suffer from the disease of writing books and being ashamed of them when they are finished.

— Baron de Montesquieu

It is unreasonable ... to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.

— Baron de Montesquieu

To succeed in the world we must look foolish but be wise.

— Baron de Montesquieu

Human laws made to direct the will ought to give precepts, and not counsels.

— Baron de Montesquieu

It is rare to find learned men who are clean, do not stink and have a sense of humour.

— Baron de Montesquieu

The English are busy folk; they have no time in which to be polite.

— Baron de Montesquieu

Fain would I glide down a gentle river, but I am carried away by a torrent.

— Baron de Montesquieu

There have never been so many civil wars as in the Kingdom of Christ.

— Baron de Montesquieu

It is difficult for the united states to be all of equal power and extent.

— Baron de Montesquieu

Certain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.

— Baron de Montesquieu

Countries are not cultivated in proportion to their fertility, but to their liberty.

— Baron de Montesquieu

There are countries where a man is worth nothing; there are others where he is worth less than nothing.

— Baron de Montesquieu

When God endowed human beings with brains, He did not intend to guarantee them.

— Baron de Montesquieu

This punishment of death is the remedy, as it were, of a sick society.

— Baron de Montesquieu

The state is the association of men, and not men themselves; the citizen may perish, and the man remain.

— Baron de Montesquieu

In constitutional states, liberty is compensation for heavy taxes; in dictatorships, the subsititue is light taxes.

— Baron de Montesquieu

There are bad examples which are worse than crimes; and more states have perished from the violation of morality than from the…

— Baron de Montesquieu