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 MONTESQUIEUWith 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 MONTESQUIEUI never listen to calumnies, because if they are untrue I run the risk of being deceived, and if they be true, of hating persons not worth thinking about.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUCountries are not cultivated in proportion to their fertility, but to their liberty.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEULuxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUSociety is the union of men and not the men themselves.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThe harshest tyranny is that which acts under the protection of legality and the banner of justice.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUPower should be a check on power.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU…when the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThe less men think, the more they talk.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThere is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUWhat orators lack in depth they make up for in length.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUHappy the people whose annals are tiresome.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEURaillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one’s wit at the expense of one’s better nature.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThe Christian religion is a stranger to mere despotic power. The mildness so frequently recommended in the Gospel is incompatible with the despotic rage.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUIf you run after wit, you will succeed in catching folly.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUAt our coming into the world we contract an immense debt to our country, which we can never discharge.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU