The 54 best famous quotes by Montesquieu

A particularly relevant thinker in the study of civil and political rights.

The Baron de MontesquieuCharles-Louis de Secondat (1689 - 1755), is surely one of the most relevant thinkers of the 18th century in Western Europe. Following the family tradition, he graduated in law to later occupy the position of counselor in the parliament of Bordeaux for more than a decade.

His thought and ideological current was somewhat controversial. Defender of civil and political rights, he also had resounding ovations for the despotic system of the Ancien Régime, as well as defending the monarchical (liberal) system as the most balanced model to guarantee progress and stability in a society.

Montesquieu's most outstanding phrases.

In this section we review the 54 most remembered famous quotes of the French thinker. The following are Montesquieu's best quotes.

1. In order that power may not be abused, it is necessary for power to stop power.

Montesquieu advocated control mechanisms to prevent this phenomenon.

2. Countries are not cultivated by reason of their fertility, but by reason of their liberty.

Freedom is what forms civilizations.

3. Most men are capable of great deeds rather than good deeds.

Throughout history man has demonstrated his eagerness to excel.

4. Divorce is indispensable in modern civilizations

With this phrase, so modern for the time, the author raised suspicions.

5. When men promise a woman that they will always love her, they assume in turn that she will always be kind to them.

Baron de Montesquieu understood love in this way, as something reciprocal.

6. When a government lasts too long it decays little by little and without noticing it.

Too long in power wears out its legitimacy.

7. If the triangles were to make a God, they would devise one with three sides.

With this phrase the author intends to make a description of the divine being.

8. Adversity is our mother; prosperity is only our stepmother.

Excellent way of stating what life means.

9. The law must be like death, which exempts no one.

Justice was a fundamental pillar for the author.

10. An injustice done to the individual is a threat done to society as a whole.

With this phrase he explains how important it is to avoid injustice in a government.

11. Sport pleases because it flatters greed, that is, the hope of possessing more.

A harsh and eloquent criticism of what sport represented at that time, similar to the present.

12. To be truly great, you have to be with the people, not above them.

This phrase sums up perfectly what the qualities of greatness should be.

13. There is no worse tyranny than that which is exercised in the shadow of the laws and under the heat of justice.

Sometimes, politics is not exercised with the laws, for these can be unjust.

14. When one seeks so much the way to make oneself feared, one always first finds the way to make oneself hated.

Power is often associated with fear, a bad combination to legitimize their actions.

15. People who have little to do are usually very talkative: the more they think and do, the less they talk.

This is a good definition to describe the attitude of certain groups.

16. In public law, the most severe act of justice is war, because it can have the effect of destroying society.

With this phrase we can deduce a certain defense of warlike action.

17. Bad examples are more harmful than crimes.

It is always necessary to know how to make analogies to give good explanations.

18. Customs make the laws, women make the customs; women, then, make the laws.

For his time, the French thinker had very advanced ideas.

19. The useless laws weaken the necessary ones

It is an evil that does not seem to have been elucidated.

20. Admirable maxim: not to speak of things until after they are done.

It is a common error among ignorant people.

21. Friendship is a contract by which we oblige ourselves to do small favors.

Curious phrase of Montesquieu that describes in a reductionist way the concept of friendship.

22. When death has equalized fortunes, the funeral pomp should not differentiate them.

Excellent contribution to explain class consciousness.

23. A thing is not just because it is law. It must be law because it is just

Laws emanate from the will of the people.

24. A man is not unhappy because of ambition, but because ambition devours him.

Measured ambition can become a virtue.

25. It seems that our life increases when we can put it in the memory of others.

This phrase describes the post mortem phenomenon, when someone famous becomes a social deity.

26. Truth in one time is error in another

Contextualization is relevant in determining right and wrong in time.

27. You have to study a lot to know little

Sometimes it is better to specialize in one field than to know everything and badly.

28. Happy the people whose history is read with boredom

Is boredom an indispensable variable for happiness?

29. Give a man a chance to be unjust, and he will not squander it.

In some cases Montesquieu was skeptical of human nature.

30. The clergy and the nobility are a good method of control for the Monarch.

Even in a despotic system, there should be justice.

31. Nothing can or should be above the laws that govern in a society.

As a good man of law, the author defended his maximal premise in this way.

32. Most people I would rather agree with them quickly than listen to them.

With this phrase the author described the majority of society as ignorant.

33. Freedom consists in being able to do what must be done.

Obligations are also part of rights in a just society.

34. Here a husband who loves his wife is a man who does not have enough merit to make himself loved by another.

Curious way of describing the way a man should love his wife.

35. To succeed in the world, one must appear mad and be wise.

Most of the geniuses of mankind were peculiar characters.

36. Usually, those who possess great talent are naïve

The good speaker is not always a great thinker.

37. We always want to be happier than others, and that is wrong.

The human being lives by and for the eternal comparison with others.

38. Democracy must guard against two excesses: the spirit of inequality and the spirit of extreme equality.

An excellent phrase to contrast two indispensable concepts in a society.

39. Liberty is the right to do what the laws permit.

For Montesquieu, outside the law there is only despotism.

40. The decomposition of any government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.

It is only when principles are betrayed that they lead to failure.

41. When societies are born, it is the heads of a State who give it its special character.

The figure of the highest authority of a country has enormous responsibilities.

42. If a citizen had the right to do what they prohibit, it would no longer be freedom, because anyone else would have the same right.

Once again, this sentence is a defense of the laws to the hilt.

43. Then, it is this special character that forms the heads of state

The figure of the president, head of state or king, is also usually a reflection of the people he represents.

44. We always imagine others to be much happier than they are in reality

Human beings constantly fall into this error of comparing themselves with others.

45. If it were enough for us to be happy, it would be a piece of cake; but we want to be happier than others.

With this phrase, once again, the bad habit of comparison is emphasized.

46. Most of the time success depends on knowing how long it will take to achieve it.

Success lies in the timeline on many occasions.

47. Luxury is always in proportion to the unevenness of fortunes.

This phrase perfectly describes the inequality between classes.

48. More States have perished by the depravity of customs than by the violation of laws.

A State is due to its customs and people.

49. A man of talent is naturally inclined to criticism, because he sees more things than other men, and sees them better.

With this phrase the thinker intends to describe how intelligence can manifest itself.

50. I would like to abolish funerals. Men should be mourned when they are born and no longer when they die.

Peculiar way of criticizing the funeral ritual.

51. The heads of the biggest men shrink when they get together.

It is not always a good combination when brilliant minds meet. One falls into the homogenization of discourse.

52. The Christian religion, which seems to have for its object only the happiness of the other life, makes us also happy in this one.

This phrase is a good description of what religion can entail.

53. Study has been for me the principal remedy against the worries of life.

Reading, studying and testing is the best remedy for ignorance.

54. Talent is a gift that God gives us in secret, and which we reveal without knowing it.

That is why it is called a gift, because we practice it without awareness.