Quote

The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.

Baron de Montesquieu

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Baron de Montesquieu
Neither
Public
Business
Certain
Must
Motion
Carried
Quick
Slow

More quotes by Baron de Montesquieu

Image
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.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
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.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Men in excess of happiness or misery are equally inclined to severity. Witness conquerors and monks! It is mediocrity alone, and a mixture of prosperous and adverse fortune that inspire us with lenity and pity.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Human laws made to direct the will ought to give precepts, and not counsels.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Europe is a state with several provinces
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
A rational army would run away.
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
The state is the association of men, and not men themselves the citizen may perish, and the man remain.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Solemnity is the shield of idiots
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
There is hardly any grief that an hour's reading will not dissipate.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
Fain would I glide down a gentle river, but I am carried away by a torrent.
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
Honor is unknown in despotic states.
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
In bodies moved, the motion is received, increased, diminished, or lost, according to the relations of the quantity of matter and velocity each diversity is uniformity, each change is constancy.
Baron de Montesquieu
Image
The severity of the laws prevents their execution.
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