Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Baron de Montesquieu
Fruit
Bottom
Exactly
Cutting
Despotic
Tree
Louisiana
Wish
Despotism
Government
Gather
Savages

More quotes by 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 laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Power ought to serve as a check to power.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
I suffer from the disease of writing books and being ashamed of them when they are finished.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
I shall be obliged to wander to the right and to the left, that I may investigate and discover the truth.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
When a government lasts a long while, it deteriorates by insensible degrees. Republics end through luxury, monarchies through poverty.
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
The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Virtue in a republic is the love of one's country, that is the love of equality.
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
I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Republics end through luxury monarchies through poverty.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Vitam Impendere Vero (I consecrate my life to truth).
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Honor is unknown in despotic states.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
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.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
It is always the adventurous who accomplish great things.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Great commanders write their actions with simplicity because they receive more glory from facts than from words.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
I have ever held it as a maxim never to do that through another which it was impossible for me to execute myself
Baron de Montesquieu