Montesquieu Quotes
Montesquieu’s ideas still spark debate, so I gathered a handful of his most pointed remarks. You’ll find a lawyer’s wit about defenders, a preacher’s take on property as theft, and a lover of books who claims reading eases any distress. If you enjoy political philosophy, you’ll also like the pages on Locke and Rousseau.
![“[Montesquieu] lifted the veil from the venerable errors which enslaved opinion, and pointed the way to those luminous truths of which he had but a glimpse himself.” quote by James Madison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/0cf/james-madison-373_errors_montesquieu-lifted-the-veil-from-the-ven_1991887.jpg)
![“Montesquieu well knew, and justly admired, the happy constitution of this country [Great Britain], where fixed and known laws equally restrain monarchy from tyranny and liberty from licentiousness.” quote by Lord Chesterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/708/lord-chesterfield-757_britain_montesquieu-well-knew-and-justly-admired_2143500.jpg)
![“[John] Adams identified himself with the political theories of [James] Harrington, [John] Locke, and [Charles-Louis] Montesquieu, whose ideas of constitutionalism, he believed, were applicable to all peoples everywhere; they were his contribution to what he called "the divine science of politics."” quote by Gordon S. Wood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c71/gordon-s-wood-13199_constitutionalism_john-adams-identified-himself-with-the-p_226327.jpg)
