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
There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.
The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles.
Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune.
They who assert that a blind fatality produced the various effects we behold in this world talk very absurdly; for can anything be more unreasonable than to pretend that a blind fatality could be productive of intelligent beings?
Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?
The state of slavery is in its own nature bad.
The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.
Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.
God is related to the universe, as Creator and Preserver; the laws by which He created all things are those by which He preserves them.
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.
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.
As soon as man enters into a state of society he loses the sense of his weakness; equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.
There are only two cases in which war is just: first, in order to resist the aggression of an enemy, and second, in order to help an ally who has been attacked.
When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.