Montesquieu Quotes

Friendship is a contract by which we obligate ourselves to do small favors for others so that others do big favors for us.

I prefer to quickly agree with most people rather than listen to them.

Happy is the nation whose history is read with boredom.

We want to be happier than others, and that is very difficult, because we always imagine them much happier than they actually are.

To achieve success in the world, one must seem crazy and be wise.

One must study a lot to know little.

A thing is not fair just because it is the law. It must be the law because it is fair.

Here a husband who loves his wife is a man who does not have enough merit to be loved by another.

It seems that our life increases when we can place it in the memory of others: It is a new life that we acquire and find precious.

The talented man is naturally inclined to criticism, because he sees more things than other men and sees them better.

The truth in one time is error in another.

Democracy must guard against two excesses: the spirit of inequality, which leads to aristocracy, and the spirit of extreme equality, which leads to despotism.