Baron de Montesquieu Quotes

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

Baron de Montesquieu

Leadership, Funny Inspirational, Integrity

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It is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power.

Baron de Montesquieu

Checks, Should

Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (2015). “The Spirit of Laws”, p.205, Library of Alexandria

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The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.

Baron de Montesquieu

Honesty, Integrity, War

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When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.

Baron de Montesquieu

Umpires, Law, Liberty

Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (2015). “The Spirit of Laws”, p.206, Library of Alexandria

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

Baron de Montesquieu

Law, Names, Tyrants

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We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our school-masters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.

Baron de Montesquieu

Education, School, Two

308 Copy quote
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.

Baron de Montesquieu

Equality, Men, Law

Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (2015). “The Spirit of Laws”, p.156, Library of Alexandria

252 Copy quote
Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.

Baron de Montesquieu

Men, Evil, Abuse

258 Copy quote
An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.

Baron de Montesquieu

Justice, Human Rights, Threat

71 Copy quote
Law should be like death, which spares no one.

Baron de Montesquieu

Law, Should, Spares

66 Copy quote
To succeed in the world we must look foolish but be wise.

Baron de Montesquieu

Success, Wise, Looks

60 Copy quote
The less men think, the more they talk.

Baron de Montesquieu

Philosophical, Men, Thinking

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That anyone who possesses power has a tendency to abuse it is an eternal truth. They tend to go as far as the barriers will allow.

Baron de Montesquieu

Peace, Abuse, Tendencies

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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.

Baron de Montesquieu

Thinking, People, Would Be

32 Copy quote
Never create by law what can be accomplished by morality.

Baron de Montesquieu

Courage, Law, Morality

41 Copy quote
Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual; and the spirit of extreme equality, which conducts it to despotism, as the despotism of a single individual finishes by conquest.

Baron de Montesquieu

Wisdom, Democracies Have, Government

170 Copy quote
You have to study a great deal to know a little.

Baron de Montesquieu

Learning, Littles, Study

"Pensées et Fragments Inédits de Montesquieu" by Baron de Montesquieu, 1899.

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Solemnity is the shield of idiots

Baron de Montesquieu

Stupidity, Shields, Idiot

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Vitam Impendere Vero (I consecrate my life to truth).

Baron de Montesquieu

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No tyranny is more cruel than the one practised in the shadow of the laws and under color of justice - when, so to speak, one proceeds to drown the unfortunate on the very plank by which they had saved themselves. And since a tyrant never lacks instruments for his tyranny, Tiberius always found judges ready to condemn as many people as he might suspect.

Baron de Montesquieu

Tyrants, Color, Law

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Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.

Baron de Montesquieu

Religious, War, Religion

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When a government lasts a long while, it deteriorates by insensible degrees. Republics end through luxury, monarchies through poverty.

Baron de Montesquieu

Luxury, Government, Long

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In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.

Baron de Montesquieu

Men, Politics, Republican

Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (2015). “The Spirit of Laws”, p.106, Library of Alexandria

32 Copy quote
Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.

Baron de Montesquieu

Philosophical, Law, Liberty

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Democracy is corrupted not only when the spirit of equality is corrupted, but likewise when they fall into a spirit of extreme equality.

Baron de Montesquieu

Fall, Democracy, Spirit

Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (2015). “The Spirit of Laws”, p.153, Library of Alexandria

112 Copy quote

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Born: January 18, 1689
Died: February 10, 1755
Occupation: Author
Cite this Page: Citation

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