30 Montesquieu phrases that will make you rethink about political power

The injustice that is done to one is a threat that is done to all.

If we just wanted to be happy, that wouldn’t be difficult. But since we want to be happier than others, it’s difficult, because we think others are happier than they really are.

When I go to a country, I do not examine whether there are good laws, but whether those that exist there are enforced, for there are good laws everywhere.

Republics end up with luxury; monarchies, by poverty.

It seems, my dear friend, that the heads of the most remarkable men wane when they come together, and that where there are more wise men, there is also less wisdom.

The love of democracy is that of equality.

A thing is not just because it is law, but it must be law because it is just.

Even virtue needs limits.

What is not good for the hive is not good for the bee either.

A man who teaches becomes easily stubborn, for he pursues the profession of a man who never errs.

It is an eternal experience that all men with power are tempted to abuse.

Ignorance is the mother of traditions.

To succeed in the world we have to look crazy, but be smart.

Study was for me the sovereign remedy against the sorrows of life, and there is no regret that an hour of reading has not consoled me.

You only know what you practice.

In general, the law is human reason, insofar as it governs all the peoples of the earth.

The corruption of rulers almost always begins with the corruption of their principles.

An admirable maxim: never talk about things again after they are done.

Property is a trap, what we think we possess possesses us.

It is unfortunate that there are so few gaps between the time when we are too young and the time when we are too old.

Achievements are easy to achieve, because we make them with all our strength; but they are difficult to maintain, since we only maintain them with a part of our strength.

Freedom, that good that allows us to enjoy other goods.

All greatness, all strength, all power is relative.

Almost all monarchies were instituted in ignorance of the arts and destroyed because they cultivated them too much.

Friendship is a contract in which we undertake to do small favors so that they can be repaid with large ones.

Useless laws weaken necessary ones.

Truth at one time, error at another.

Lions have great strength, but it would be useless if nature had not given them eyes.

We should mourn people at birth, not when they die.

The less men think, the more they talk.