193 Quotes by Baron de Montesquieu

When the savages of Louisiana are desirous of fruit, they cut the tree to the root and gather the fruit. This is an emblem of despotic government.

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

There is something in animals beside the power of motion. They are not machines; they feel.

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

If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier that other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are. you are comparing your lot with an ideal which is of course better and therefore you feel worse.

Political liberty in a citizen is that tranquillity of spirit which comes from the opinion each one has of his security, and in order for him to have this liberty the government must be such that one citizen cannot fear another citizen.

There is a very good saying that if triangles invented a god, they would make him three-sided.

Men in excess of happiness or misery are equally inclined to severity. Witness conquerors and monks! It is mediocrity alone, and a mixture of prosperous and adverse fortune that inspire us with lenity and pity.

What cowardice it is to be dismayed by the happiness of others and devastated by there good fortune.