Montesquieu Quotes

Montesquieu

Profession : Philosopher

Birth : January 18, 1689

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

Montesquieu

The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles.

Montesquieu

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

Montesquieu

What orators lack in depth they make up for in length.

Montesquieu

The object of war is victory; that of victory is conquest; and that of conquest preservation.

Montesquieu

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.

Montesquieu

They who assert that a blind fatality produced the various effects we behold in this world talk very absurdly; for can anything be more unreasonable than to pretend that a blind fatality could be productive of intelligent beings?

Montesquieu

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.

Montesquieu

To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.

Montesquieu

Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.

Montesquieu

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.

Montesquieu

The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.

Montesquieu

False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.

Montesquieu

An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.

Montesquieu

There are only two cases in which war is just: first, in order to resist the aggression of an enemy, and second, in order to help an ally who has been attacked.

Montesquieu

Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.

Montesquieu

There is no one, says another, whom fortune does not visit once in his life; but when she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door, and flies out at the window.

Montesquieu

Peace is a natural effect of trade.

Montesquieu

A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century.

Montesquieu

In bodies moved, the motion is received, increased, diminished, or lost, according to the relations of the quantity of matter and velocity; each diversity is uniformity, each change is constancy.

Montesquieu