Baron De Montesquieu Quotes
To lend money without interest, is certainly an action laudable and extremely good; but it is obvious, that it is only a counsel of religion, and not a civil law.
I shall ever repeat it, that mankind are governed not by extremes, but by principals of moderation.
The pagan religion, which prohibited only some of the grosser crimes, and which stopped the hand but meddled not with the heart, might have crimes that were inexplicable.
The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.
When God endowed human beings with brains, He did not intend to guarantee them.
The culminating point of administration is to know well how much power, great or small, we ought to use in all circumstances.
In the birth of societies it is the chiefs of states who give it its special character; and afterward it is this special character that forms the chiefs of state.
Honor sets all the parts of the body politic in motion, and by its very action connects them; thus each individual advances the public good, while he only thinks of promoting his own interest.
Politics are a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by slow progression.
Certain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.
In a republic there is no coercive force as in other governments, the laws must therefore endeavor to supply this defect.
In constitutional states, liberty is compensation for heavy taxes; in dictatorships, the subsititue is light taxes.
A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight.
Better it is to say that the government most comfortable to nature is that which best agrees with the humor and disposition of the people in whose favor it is established.
Vanity and pride of nations; vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous.
Friendship is a contract in which we render small services in expectation of big ones.
A man who writes well writes not as others write, but as he himself writes; it is often in speaking badly that he speaks well.
