Quotes by Charles de Montesquieu

An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations. (Charles de Montesquieu)

An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war. (Charles de Montesquieu)

Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free. (Charles de Montesquieu)

I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise. (Charles de Montesquieu)

I have never known any distress that an hours reading did not relieve. (Charles de Montesquieu)

If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides. (Charles de Montesquieu)

If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, and that is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are. (Charles de Montesquieu)

In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed. (Charles de Montesquieu)

In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state. (Charles de Montesquieu)

In the state of nature...all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law. (Charles de Montesquieu)