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The Christian religion is a stranger to mere despotic power. The mildness so frequently recommended in the Gospel is incompatible with the despotic rage.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
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As virtue is necessary in a republic, and honor in a monarchy, fear is what is required in a despotism. As for virtue, it is not at all necessary, and honor would be dangerous there.
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There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently monarchical, but in reality it is more oppressive than monarchy, as the experience of all ages and countries evinces.
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As men are affected in all ages by the same passions, the occasions which bring about great changes are different, but the causes are always the same.
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Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.
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Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less men think, the more they talk.
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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.
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Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?
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Laws, in their most general signification, are the necessary relations derived from the nature of things.
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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.
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Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.
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Trade is the best cure for prejudice.
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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.
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I suffer from the disease of writing books and being ashamed of them when they are finished.
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What unhappy beings men are! They constantly waver between false hopes and silly fears, and instead of relying on reason they create monsters to frighten themselves with, and phantoms which lead them astray.
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Experience constantly proves that every man who has power is impelled to abuse it he goes on till he is pulled up by some limits. Who would say it! virtue even has need of limits.
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In the matter of dress one should always keep below one's ability.
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With truths of a certain kind, it is not enough to make them appear convincing: one must also make them felt. Of such kind are moral truths.
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The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.
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The life of man is but a succession of vain hopes and groundless fears.
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When God endowed human beings with brains, He did not intend to guarantee them.
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