Charles de Montesquieu's Quotes

To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.

What orators lack in depth they make up for in length.

It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.

Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.

Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.

Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.

The severity of the laws prevents their execution.

The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver.

There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.

We should weep for men at their birth, not at their death.

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.

To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.

There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.

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.

It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.

I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.

If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, and that is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.

I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise.

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.

The less men think, the more they talk.

In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.

An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.

Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.

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

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.

An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.