Charles de Secondat
Charles de Secondat
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French lawyer, man of letters, and political philosopher who lived during the Age of Enlightenment. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers, which is implemented in many constitutions throughout the world. He is also known for doing more than any other author to secure the place of the word despotism in the political lexicon...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth18 January 1689
CountryFrance
Power ought to serve as a check to power.
You have to study a great deal to know a little.
Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.
But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.
I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.
I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise.
Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer.
Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people.
Weak minds exaggerate too much the wrong done to the Africans.
There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.
Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance... the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.
Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.
Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.
Thus the creation, which seems an arbitrary act, supposes laws as invariable as those of the fatality of the Atheists. It would be absurd to say that the Creator might govern the world without those rules, since without them it could not subsist.