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About Montesquieu

Montesquieu was a 17th-century French judge, historian, and political philosopher. Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, intellectual, historian, and political philosopher. Read more on Wikipedia →

More quotes by Montesquieu

“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.”
— Montesquieu
law society

“Democratic and aristocratic states are not in their own nature free. Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments; and even in these it is not always found. It is there only when t...”
— Montesquieu
power

“I have never known any distress that an hours reading did not relieve.”
— Montesquieu
reading stress-relief trouble

“We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our school masters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.”
— Montesquieu
education experience learning life

“In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.”
— Montesquieu
conservatism government liberty republicanism

“Virtue has need of limits.”
— Montesquieu
virtue
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