Top 200 Baron de Montesquieu Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The less men think, the more they talk.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

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

— Baron de Montesquieu

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

— Baron de Montesquieu

4. “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.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

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

— Baron de Montesquieu

6. “A really intelligent man feels what other men only know.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

7. “The love of democracy is that of equality.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

8. “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.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

9. “Power ought to serve as a check to power.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

10. “Trade is the best cure for prejudice.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

11. “Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

12. “Man is a social animal formed to please in society.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

13. “Law should be like death, which spares no one.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

14. “You have to study a great deal to know a little.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

15. “I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

16. “An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

17. “An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

18. “Coffee renders many foolish people temporarily capable of wise actions.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

19. “There is as yet no liberty if the power of judging be not separated from legislative power and the executrix.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

20. “I should like to abolish funerals; the time to mourn a person is at his birth, not his death.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

21. “Democracy is corrupted not only when the spirit of equality is corrupted, but likewise when they fall into a spirit of extreme equality.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

22. “No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

23. “To succeed in the world we must look foolish but be wise.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

24. “The law of nations is naturally founded on this principle, that different nations ought in time of peace to do one another all the good they can, and in time of war as little injury as possible, without prejudicing their real interests.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

25. “Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

26. “A rational army would run away.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

27. “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.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

28. “We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our school-masters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

29. “Solemnity is the shield of idiots.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

30. “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.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

31. “Government should be set up so that no man need be afraid of another.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

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

— Baron de Montesquieu

33. “When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it and avarice possesses the whole community.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

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

— Baron de Montesquieu

35. “For a country, everything will be lost when the jobs of an economist and a banker become highly respected professions.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

36. “Peace is a natural effect of trade.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

37. “Each citizen contributes to the revenues of the State a portion of his property in order that his tenure of the rest may be secure.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

38. “The less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

39. “If triangles had a god, he would have three sides.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

40. “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.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

41. “Law in general is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth: the political and civil laws of each nation ought to be only the particular cases in which human reason is applied.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

42. “The prejudices of superstition are superior to all others, and have the strongest influence on the human mind.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

43. “Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

44. “The incomparable stupidity of life teaches us to love our parents; divine philosophy teaches us to forgive them.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

45. “When a government lasts a long while, it deteriorates by insensible degrees. Republics end through luxury, monarchies through poverty.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

46. “There are only two cases in which war is just: first, in order to resist the aggression of an enemy, and second, in order to help an ally who has been attacked.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

47. “Love of reading enables a man to exchange the weary hours, which come to every one, for hours of delight.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

48. “An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

49. “The false notion of miracles comes of our vanity, which makes us believe we are important enough for the Supreme Being to upset nature on our behalf.”

— Baron de Montesquieu

50. “Virtue in a republic is the love of one’s country, that is the love of equality.”

— Baron de Montesquieu