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Baron de Montesquieu

26 quotesPoet Lawyer · France · Male

All Anti-Christian (3)Christianity (2)intolerance (2)Law (2)War (2)Corruption (1)Nature (1)Altruism (1)Unhappiness (1)Fear (1)Louisiana (1)punishment (1)monsters (1)rejoice (1)Phantoms (1)

From “A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations From the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern”

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.

Happiness

From “Persian Letters”

But there is not a single person employed in any way at the court, in Paris, or in the provinces, who is not acquainted with some woman through whose hands pass all the favors and sometimes all the wrongs which he may wish done. These women are all in each other’s secrets, and form a sort of…

paris Courts Women Matriarchy

They maintain that all unlimited power must be unlawful, because it cannot have had a lawful origin. For, we cannot, say they, give to another more power over us than we ourselves have: now, we have not unlimited power over ourselves; for example, we have no right to take our own lives: no one upon…

Unlimited Power Unlawful

We are so blind that we know neither when to mourn, nor when to rejoice; our mirth and our sadness are nearly always false.

Blind Mourn rejoice Mirth Sadness

When the savages of Louisiana are desirous of fruit, they cut the tree to the root and gather the fruit. This is an emblem of despotic government.

savages Louisiana Despotism Government

The desire for glory is no different from that instinct for preservation that is common to all creatures. It is as if we enhance our being if we can gain a place in the memory of others; it is a new life that we acquire, which becomes as precious to us as the one we received from Heaven.

glory Heaven Preservation

Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer.

Being Loved Insult Misfortune

Nature, in her wisdom, seems to have arranged it so that men's stupidity should be ephemeral, and books make them immortal. A fool ought to be content having exacerbated everyone around him, but he insists tormenting future generations.

stupidity Brain Fools Wisdom

Every man is capable of doing good to another, but to contribute to the happiness of an entire society is to become akin to the gods.

Altruism

In vain do we seek tranquility in the desert; temptations are always with us; our passions, represented by the demons, never let us alone: those monsters created by the heart, those illusions produced by the mind, those vain specters that are our errors and our lies always appear before us to seduce…

Tranquility Illusions strength

History is full of religious wars; but, we must take care to observe, it was not the multiplicity of religions that produced these wars, it was the intolerating spirit which animated that one which thought she had the power of governing.

Religious Wars intolerance

With truths of a certain kind, it is not enough to make them appear convincing: one must also make them felt. Of such kind are moral truths.

Moral Truths Feeling Emotion Reason

I can assure you that no kingdom has ever had as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ.

War Christianity Anti-Christian

They who love to inform themselves, are never idle. Though I have no business of consequence to take care of, I am nevertheless continually employed. I spend my life in examining things: I write down in the evening whatever I have remarked, what I have seen, and what I have heard in the day: every…

Wonder Autodidact

What unhappy beings men are! They constantly waver between false hopes and silly fears, and instead of relying on reason they create monsters to frighten themselves with, and phantoms which lead them astray.

Unhappiness False Hope Fear monsters Phantoms

I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.

Paradise Anti-Christian

There is only one thing that can form a bond between men, and that is gratitude...we cannot give someone else greater power over us than we have ourselves.

Gratitude bond

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.

War Aggression justify

Christians are beginning to lose the spirit of intolerance which animated them: experience has shown the error of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and of the persecution of those Christians in France whose belief differed a little from that of the king. They have realized that zeal for the…

Jews Guilt Spain Christians France

A man should be mourned at his birth, not at his death.

Mourning Birth Death

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