Quote

In republican governments, men are all equal equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything in the latter, because they are nothing.

Baron de Montesquieu

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Baron de Montesquieu
Everything
Governments
Nothing
Latter
Men
Former
Republican
Equal
Politics
Also
Government
Despotic

More quotes by Baron de Montesquieu

Image
Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
When the [law making] and [law enforcement] powers are united in the same person... there can be no liberty.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
The incomparable stupidity of life teaches us to love our parents divine philosophy teaches us to forgive them.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less men think, the more they talk.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
There is something in animals beside the power of motion. They are not machines they feel.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
When the savages of Louisiana wish to have fruit, they cut the tree at the bottom and gather the fruit. That is exactly a despotic government.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Study has been for me the sovereign remedy against all the disappointments of life. I have never known any trouble that an hour's reading would not dissipate.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
The prejudices of superstition are superior to all others, and have the strongest influence on the human mind.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
At our coming into the world we contract an immense debt to our country, which we can never discharge.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
The less men think, the more they talk.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
There is hardly any grief that an hour's reading will not dissipate.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
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
Image
When God endowed human beings with brains, He did not intend to guarantee them.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
[The Pope] will make the king believe that three are only one, that the bread he eats is not bread... and a thousand other things of the same kind.
Baron de Montesquieu