Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Montesquieu (French Political Philosopher)

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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Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.
Montesquieu
Topics: Friends and Friendship

Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.
Montesquieu
Topics: Time, Perseverance, Success, Endurance, Resolve, Time Management

Those who have but little business to attend to, are great talkers. The less men think, the more they talk.
Montesquieu
Topics: Conversation, Talking

I have ever held it a maxim, never to do through another what it was possible for me to do myself.
Montesquieu
Topics: Self-reliance

In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of the state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state
Montesquieu
Topics: Government

Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it
Montesquieu
Topics: Talent

Republics come to an end by luxurious habits; monarchies by poverty.
Montesquieu

I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise.
Montesquieu
Topics: Success, Simplicity

The love of democracy is that of equality.
Montesquieu
Topics: Democracy

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

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

It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.
Montesquieu
Topics: Greatness, Greatness & Great Things

We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death.
Montesquieu
Topics: Dying, Death

Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers.—The less men think the more they talk.
Montesquieu

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

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

Passions makes us feel, but never see clearly.
Montesquieu
Topics: Passion

The morality of the gospel is the noblest gift ever bestowed by God on man.
Montesquieu
Topics: Morality

No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.
Montesquieu

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

To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.
Montesquieu
Topics: Greatness

We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our schoolmasters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.
Montesquieu
Topics: Experience

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

Some men will believe nothing but what they can comprehend; and there are but few things that such are able to comprehend.
Montesquieu

Author: A fool who, not content with having bored those who have lived with him, insists on tormenting generations to come.
Montesquieu
Topics: Writing, Authors & Writing

When the savages wish to have fruit they cut down the tree and gather it.—That is exactly a despotic government.
Montesquieu

I never listen to calumnies; because, if they are untrue, I run the risk of being deceived; and if they are true, of hating persons not worth thinking about.
Montesquieu

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

Virtue I love, without austerity; pleasure, without effeminacy; and life, without fearing its end.
Montesquieu
Topics: Virtue

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