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Baron de Montesquieu Quotes

Total quotes: 26
“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 republic, the members of which are always busy aiding and serving each other; it is like a state within a state; and anyone at court, in Paris, or in the provinces who sees the activity of the ministers, the magistrates, and the prelates, if he does not know the women who govern them, is like a man who sees a machine at work, but who is ignorant of the springs that move it.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: 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 earth then, they conclude, had such a power.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: 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.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: Blind, Mourn, rejoice, Mirth, Sadness
“Nature repairs everything.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws(Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
Tagged: Nature, Healing
“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.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: 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.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: glory, Heaven, Preservation
“Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: 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.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: stupidity, Brain, Fools, Wisdom
“It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of maturer age are already sunk into corruption.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws(Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
Tagged: Degenerate, Young People, maturity, Corruption
“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.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: 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 us; they attack us even in our fasting or our mortifications, in other words, in our very strength.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: 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.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: 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.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: Moral Truths, Feeling, Emotion, Reason
“Democratic and aristocratic states are not in their own nature free. Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments; and even in these it is not always found. It is there only when there is no abuse of power. But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws(Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
Tagged: Democratic, aristocratic, Liberty
“I can assure you that no kingdom has ever had as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: 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 thing engages my attention, and every thing excites my wonder: I am like an infant, whose organs, as yet tender, are strongly affected by the slightest objects.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: 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.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: Unhappiness, False Hope, Fear, monsters, Phantoms
“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws(Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
Tagged: Law, Useless Laws
“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws(Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
Tagged: tyranny, Law
“I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: 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.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: 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.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: 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 advancement of religion is different from a due attachment to it; and that in order to love it and fulfill its behests, it is not necessary to hate and persecute those who are opposed to it.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: Jews, Guilt, Spain, Christians, France, intolerance, Spanish Inquisition
“A man should be mourned at his birth, not at his death.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: Mourning, Birth, Death
“Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?”
— Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters(Penguin Classics)
Tagged: Christianity, Anti-Christian, God, punishment
“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.”
— Baron de Montesquieu, A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations From the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern(Classic Reprint)
Tagged: Happiness
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