Montesquieu Quotes

There is a set of rules that has grown up among nations to govern their relations with one another. It is called the law of nations or international law. International law is based on the idea that nations in time of peace should do each other as much good as possible and in time of […]

What orators lack in depth they make up for in length.

In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.

Solemnity is the shield of idiots.

A conquest made by a democracy is always odious to the subject states. It becomes thereby monarchical by a fiction, but it is always more oppressive than a monarchy, as the experience of all times and ages shows.

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.

Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.

It is rare to find learned men who are clean, do not stink, and have a sense of humor.

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

Happy are the people whose annals are boring to read.