Charles De Montesquieu Quotes

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

Charles De Montesquieu

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

Charles De Montesquieu

#3. The less men think, the more they talk.

Charles De Montesquieu

#4. The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.

Charles De Montesquieu

#5. 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.

Charles De Montesquieu

#6. The reason the Romans built their great paved highways was because they had such inconvenient footwear.

Charles De Montesquieu

#7. The severity of the laws prevents their execution.

Charles De Montesquieu

#8. There should be weeping at a man's birth, not at his death.

Charles De Montesquieu

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

Charles De Montesquieu

#10. 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.

Charles De Montesquieu

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

Charles De Montesquieu

#12. We 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.

Charles De Montesquieu

#13. Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.

Charles De Montesquieu

#14. Author: A fool who, not content with having bored those who have lived with him, insists on tormenting generations to come.

Charles De Montesquieu

#15. Peace is a natural effect of trade.

Charles De Montesquieu

#16. In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.

Charles De Montesquieu

#17. Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.

Charles De Montesquieu

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

Charles De Montesquieu

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

Charles De Montesquieu

#20. A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century.

Charles De Montesquieu

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

Charles De Montesquieu

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

Charles De Montesquieu

#23. Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.

Charles De Montesquieu

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

Charles De Montesquieu

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

Charles De Montesquieu

#26. Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.

Charles De Montesquieu

#27. Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.

Charles De Montesquieu

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

Charles De Montesquieu