Quotes from Baron de Montesquieu

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

Virtue in a republic is the love of one's country, that is the love of equality.

Love of the republic in a democracy, is a love of the democracy; love of the democracy is that of equality. Love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality.

That anyone who possesses power has a tendency to abuse it is an eternal truth. They tend to go as far as the barriers will allow.

I shall be obliged to wander to the right and to the left, that I may investigate and discover the truth.

If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, and that is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.

When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.

The love of study is in us the only lasting passion. All the others quit us in proportion as this miserable machine which holds them approaches its ruins.

The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.

Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.

We ought to be very cautious and circumspect in the prosecution of magic and heresy. The attempt to put down these two crimes may be extremely perilous to liberty.

A really intelligent man feels what other men only know.

The life of man is but a succession of vain hopes and groundless fears.

It is unreasonable ... to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.

As men are affected in all ages by the same passions, the occasions which bring about great changes are different, but the causes are always the same.

Experience constantly proves that every man who has power is impelled to abuse it; he goes on till he is pulled up by some limits. Who would say it! virtue even has need of limits.

Wherever I find envy I take a pleasure in provoking it: I always praise before an envious man those who make him grow pale.

Man is a social animal formed to please in society.

Sometimes a man who deserves to be looked upon because he is a fool is despised only because he is a lawyer.

As soon as man enters into a state of society he loses the sense of his weakness; equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.

Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.

Mediocrity is a hand-rail.

Never create by law what can be accomplished by morality.