The English are busy folk; they have no time in which to be polite.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThe English are busy folk; they have no time in which to be polite.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUWhen the savages of Louisiana wish to have fruit, they cut the tree at the bottom and gather the fruit. That is exactly a despotic government.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUEach citizen contributes to the revenues of the State a portion of his property in order that his tenure of the rest may be secure.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUCertain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUWe must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUVitam Impendere Vero (I consecrate my life to truth).
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUIt is clear that in a monarchy, where he who commands the exceution of the laws generally thinks himself above them, there is lessneed of virtue than in a popular government, where the person entrusted with the execution of the laws is sensible of his being subject to their direction.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUFalse 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.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUI should like to abolish funerals; the time to mourn a person is at his birth, not his death.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUPolitical liberty in a citizen is that tranquillity of spirit which comes from the opinion each one has of his security, and in order for him to have this liberty the government must be such that one citizen cannot fear another citizen.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUFor a country, everything will be lost when the jobs of an economist and a banker become highly respected professions.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThere 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.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUWhen virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it and avarice possesses the whole community.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUWhat cowardice it is to be dismayed by the happiness of others and devastated by there good fortune.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUHappy the people whose annals are tiresome.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUIf I knew something that would serve my country but would harm mankind, I would never reveal it; for I am a citizen of humanity first and by necessity, and a citizen of France second, and only by accident
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU