Liberty itself has appeared intolerable to those nations who have not been accustomed to enjoy it. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
It is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
Vanity and pride of nations; vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
In a republic there is no coercive force as in other governments, the laws must therefore endeavor to supply this defect. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
When a government lasts a long while, it deteriorates by insensible degrees. Republics end through luxury, monarchies through poverty. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
When a government is arrived to that degree of corruption as to be incapable of reforming itself, it would not lose much… — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
Better it is to say that the government most comfortable to nature is that which best agrees with the humor and disposition… — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
Political liberty in a citizen is that tranquillity of spirit which comes from the opinion each one has of his security, and… — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in… — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
When the savages of Louisiana wish to have fruit, they cut the tree at the bottom and gather the fruit. That is… — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
Vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous. To be convinced of this we need only represent, on the… — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single… — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
It is clear that in a monarchy, where he who commands the exceution of the laws generally thinks himself above them, there… — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
In every government there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on the law of… — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
When the savages of Louisiana wish to have fruit, they cut the tree at the bottom and gather the fruit. That is exactly a… — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
Political liberty in a citizen is that tranquillity of spirit which comes from the opinion each one has of his security, and in order… — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
It is rare to find learned men who are clean, do not stink and have a sense of humour. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it and avarice possesses the whole community. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
Christianity stamped its character on jurisprudence; for empire has ever a connection with the priesthood. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
The prejudices of superstition are superior to all others, and have the strongest influence on the human mind. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
Republics are brought to their ends by luxury; monarchies by poverty. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
Laws, in their most general signification, are the necessary relations derived from the nature of things. — Baron de Montesquieu Copy Share Image
