Montesquieu (1689–1755,) fully Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, was a French philosopher and jurist. The first of the great French men of letters connected with the Enlightenment, his major work, The Spirit of Laws, was a leading contribution to political theory.
Born at the Château de la Brede, near Bordeaux, Montesquieu became the counselor of the Parlement of Bordeaux 1714 and its president 1716. He performed the duties of his office faithfully until his poor eyesight hindered him. He first gained renown with the publication of his Lettres Persanes (1721; Persian Letters,) a satire of French society from the viewpoint of two Persian travelers visiting Paris.
Montesquieu’s standing rests chiefly on L’Esprit des lois (1748; The Spirit of Laws, 1750,) a comparative study of political systems in which he championed the separation of judicial, legislative, and executive powers as being most conducive to individual liberty, holding up the English state as a model. He contended that an individual’s liberty needed protection from the arm of power, checking that by another power. Where judicial, executive, and legislative powers were concentrated in the hands of one figure, there could be no individual liberty. His political philosophies were highly influential in Europe in the late 18th century, as they were in the drafting of the American Constitution.
Montesquieu’s other works include Lysimaque (1748) and Arsace et Isménie (1930; (The True History of) Arsace and Isménie,) a romance, and an essay on taste (“Gout”) in the Encyclopédie (1751–80.) A member of the Académie Française from 1728, he died completely blind.
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When it is not despicable to be poor, we want fewer things to live in poverty with satisfaction, than to live magnificently with riches.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Poverty
What too many orators want in depth, they give you in length.
—Montesquieu
A nation may lose its liberties in a day, and not miss them in a century.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Nation, Freedom, Liberty
The morality of the gospel is the noblest gift ever bestowed by God on man.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Morality
Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Friends and Friendship
Whom one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Manners
There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Law, Lawyers
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
Topics: Fortune
Nature is just toward men. It recompenses them for their sufferings; it renders them laborious, because to the greatest toils it attaches the greatest rewards.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Labor
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.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Welfare, Apathy
When the savages wish to have fruit they cut down the tree and gather it.—That is exactly a despotic government.
—Montesquieu
The love of reading enables a man to exchange the wearisome hours of life, which come to everyone, for hours of delight.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Reading
The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Lawyers, Law
The spirit of politeness is a desire to bring about by our words and manners, that others may be pleased with us and with themselves.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Politeness
In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of the state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state
—Montesquieu
Topics: Government
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.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Opportunities, Comparisons, Reality, Happiness
It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Greatness, Greatness & Great Things
Imperfect enjoyment is attended with regret; a surfeit of pleasure with disgust. There is a certain nick of time, a certain medium to be observed, with which few people are acquainted.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Enjoyment
In the state of nature…all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Equality
Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers.—The less men think the more they talk.
—Montesquieu
Man is a social animal, formed to please and enjoy in society.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Society
There are bad examples that are worse than crimes; and more states have perished from the violation of morality than from the violation of law.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Example
What orators lack in depth, they make up to you in length.
—Montesquieu
The pious man and the atheist always talk of religion; the one of what he loves, and the other of what he fears.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Religion
It is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Government
Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Liberty
We should never create by law what can be accomplished by morality.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Law
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.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Authority
As the general rule in constitutional states liberty is a compensation for the heaviness of taxation, and in despotic states the equivalent for liberty is the lightness of taxation.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Taxes
To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Greatness
Politeness is a mixture of discretion, civility, complaisance, and circumspection spread over all we do and say.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Politeness
Let pleasure be ever so innocent the excess is always criminal.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Excess
Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Lawyers, Law
Republics come to an end by luxurious habits; monarchies by poverty.
—Montesquieu
Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it
—Montesquieu
Topics: Talent
Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one’s wit against one’s good nature.
—Montesquieu
People judge, for the most part, by the success. Let a man show all the good conduct that is possible, if the event does not answer, ill fortune passes for a fault, and is justified by a very few persons.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Success
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
Topics: Happiness
This is how I define talent; it is a gift that God has given us in secret, which we reveal without knowing it.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Talent
The sacred books of the ancient Persians say: If you would be holy instruct your children, because all the good acts they perform will be imputed to you.
—Montesquieu
Topics: Parents
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