Quote

I never listen to calumnies, because if they are untrue I run the risk of being deceived, and if they be true, of hating persons not worth thinking about.

Baron de Montesquieu

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Baron de Montesquieu
Never
Deceived
Thinking
Listen
Worth
Risk
Hate
Calumnies
Running
Calumny
True
Hating
Persons
Untrue

More quotes by Baron de Montesquieu

Image
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.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Solemnity is the shield of idiots
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
There is something in animals beside the power of motion. They are not machines they feel.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Better it is to say that the government most comfortable to nature is that which best agrees with the humor and disposition of the people in whose favor it is established.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Honor sets all the parts of the body politic in motion, and by its very action connects them thus each individual advances the public good, while he only thinks of promoting his own interest.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
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.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.
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
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
Image
If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
There should be weeping at a man's birth, not at his death.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
There is no one, says another, whom fortune does not visit once in his life but when she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door, and flies out at the window.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
The wickedness of mankind makes it necessary for the law to suppose them better than they really are.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
It is always the adventurous who accomplish great things.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
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.
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
The power of divorce can be given only to those who feel the inconveniences of marriage, and who are sensible of the moment when it is for their interest to make them cease.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Laws, in their most general signification, are the necessary relations derived from the nature of things.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
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.
Baron de Montesquieu