Montesquieu Quotes
Best 20 Other Quotes by Montesquieu
“A man who writes well writes not as others write, but as he himself writes; it is often in speaking badly that he speaks well.”
“A truly virtuous man would come to the aid of the most distant stranger as quickly as to his own friend. If men were perfectly virtuous, they wouldn’t have friends.”
“An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.”
“Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.”
“Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?”
“Government should be set up so that no man need be afraid of another.”
“Happy the people whose annals are boring to read.”
“I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise.”
“I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.”
“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.”
“If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.”
“If triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.”
“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.”
“Solemnity is the shield of idiots.”
“Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it.”
“The history of commerce is that of the communication of the people.”
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“Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains.”
“The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.”
“The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.”
“Virtue has need of limits.”
“We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our school masters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.”
