Quotes from Charles de Montesquieu

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

False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.

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

Success generally depends upon knowing how long it takes to succeed.

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.

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

Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.

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.

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

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

Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it

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

Peace is a natural effect of trade.

If 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.

In the state of nature...all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.

Law should be like death, which spares no one.

The severity of the laws prevents their execution.

The love of democracy is that of equality.

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

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

The best example of democracy I can recall is five wolves sitting down to dinner with one sheep.

It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.