37 Quotes by Charles de Montesquieu

I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise.

We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.

The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.

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.

In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.

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

The less men think, the more they talk.

There should be weeping at a man's birth, not at his death.

There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.