Charles de Montesquieu citáty

„Isté je, že povaha lásky a povaha priateľstva sú celkom odlišné: priateľstvo ešte nikoho nikdy nepriviedlo do blázinca.“

„U mladých žien nahradzuje krása ducha, u starých duch krásu.“

„Šťastný národ, ktorý má nudné dejiny.“

„Štúdium mi bolo najúčinnejším prostriedkom proti omrzelosti života, môj duch sa nikdy nezachmúril tak, aby ho hodina čítania nerozjasnila.“

„Ak nás žena ľúbi, odpúšťa aj naše nedostatky, a ak nás neľúbi neodpustí ani naše prednosti.“

„Prečo ľudia, ktorí nemajú čo povedať, nemlčia?“

„S väčšinou ľudí radšej súhlasím, než by som ich mal počúvať.“

„Ľudia sú podivní: cenia si viac svojich názorov ako vecí.“

„Nemám rád ľudí, ktorí oslavujú stále triumf nad skromnosťou druhých.“

„Sú dva druhy ľudí: jedni, čo premýšľajú a druhí, čo sa zabávajú.“

„Nedá sa žiť príjemne, ak sa nežije múdro, čestne a spravodlivo a nedá sa žiť múdro, čestne a spravodlivo, ak sa nežije príjemne.“

„Prišli sme na svet, aby sme žili v zhode a jeden druhému sa navzájom podobali.“

„Sú knihy, pri čítaní ktorých dostávame chuť liezť štvornožky.“

„V láske sme preto nespravodliví, pretože považujeme toho druhého za dokonalého. Je isté, že povaha lásky a povaha priateľstva sú celkom odlišné; priateľstvo ešte nikoho nikdy nepriviedlo do blázinca.“

„Za despotickej, tyranskej vlády, historici falšujú pravdu, lebo nemajú dostatok slobody, aby ju mohli povedať.“

„Môžeme stratiť lásku k blížnym, ale povinností k nim nás nikto nezbaví.“

„Celý život som vyznával vernosť, ale nedarilo sa mi.“

„Keby človek chcel byť len šťastný, nebolo by to také ťažké, ale človek chce byť šťastnejší než ostatní a to je skoro vždy nemožné, lebo ostatných obyčajne považujeme za šťastnejších, než v skutočnosti sú.“

„Keby si trojuholníky vytvorili boha, dali by mu tri strany.“

„Keby sme chceli byť len šťastní, čoskoro by sa to vyplnilo. Chceme však byť vždy šťastnejší ako druhí, a to je skoro vždy ťažké, pretože považujeme druhých za šťastnejších, ako sú.“

„Keď divosi zatúžia po ovocí, zotnú strom a oberú ho. Práve taká je každá despotická vláda.“

„Keď nás žena miluje, odpustí nám naše nedostatky, keď nemiluje, neodpustí ani naše prednosti.“

„Kto sa ženie za duchaplnosťou, dohoní hlúposť.“

„Manželstvo je jediné nešťastie, ktoré človek víta s radosťou.“

„Nešťastný ľudský osud! Sotva duch dozrieva, začína telo slabnúť!“

„Niekto vám musí šliapať na päty. Človek je ako pružina, ktorá je tým silnejšia, čím viac ju stlačíme.“

„Peniaze majú veľkú cenu vtedy, keď nimi pohŕdame.“

„Priateľstvo je zmluva, v ktorej sa zaväzujeme preukazovať niekomu malé služby, aby sa nám za to odmenil veľkými.“

„So svojimi deťmi som žil ako so svojimi priateľmi.“

„Šťastní ľudia, ktorých životopisy sú nudné na čítanie.“

„U Rimanov zákony nemohli dôverovať otrokom, lebo otroci nemohli dôverovať zákonom.“

„Veľa učiteľov vedy i umenia nevyhnutne potrebuje značný talent - pretože netreba veľa ducha na to, aby sa jednoducho ukazovalo, čo poznáme, ale treba ho nekonečne veľa, aby človek učil niečo, čo nepozná.“

„Vo Francúzsku manželia málokedy rozprávajú o svojich manželkách. Preto, lebo im je trápne ozvať sa pred mužmi, ktorí ich manželky lepšie poznajú ako oni sami.“

„Všetci neodvážni ľudia radi vyhrážajú, pretože cítia, že by hrozby urobili na nich dojem.“

„Vždy som videl, že pre úspech vo svete treba vyzerať hlúpo a byť múdrym.“

„Ženy obetujeme Bohu, keď diabol s nimi nechce nič mať.“

„Ako nešťastná je prirodzenosť človeka. Sotva dozrel jeho duch, už začína telo slabnúť.“

„Človek, ktorý vie hovoriť len pravdu, je narušiteľom pokoja.“

„Človek musí veľa študovať, aby málo vedel.“

“There is only one thing that can form a bond between men, and that is gratitude…we cannot give someone else greater power over us than we have ourselves.”

“In a free nation, it matters not whether individuals reason well or ill; it is sufficient that they do reason. Truth arises from the collision and from hence springs liberty, which is a security from the effects of reasoning.”

“Of all kind of authors there are none I despise more than compilers, who search every where for shreds of other men's works, which they join to their own, like so many pieces of green turf in a garden: they are not at all superior to compositors in a printing house, who range the types, which, collected together, make a book, towards which they contribute nothing but the labours of the hand. I would have original writers respected, and it seems to me a kind of profanation to take those pieces from the sanctuary in which they reside, and to expose them to a contempt they do not deserve. When a man hath nothing new to say, why does not he hold his tongue? What business have we with this double employment?”

“Christians are beginning to lose the spirit of intolerance which animated them: experience has shown the error of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and of the persecution of those Christians in France whose belief differed a little from that of the king. They have realized that zeal for the advancement of religion is different from a due attachment to it; and that in order to love it and fulfill its behests, it is not necessary to hate and persecute those who are opposed to it.”

“Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer.”

“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 there is no abuse of power. But constant experience shows us that every man who has power is inclined to abuse it; he goes until he finds limits. Is it not strange, though true, to say that virtue itself has need of limits?.
To prevent this abuse, it is necessary that, by the arrangement of things, power shall stop power. A government may be so constituted, as no man shall be compelled to do things to which the law does not oblige him, nor forced to abstain from things which the law permits.”

“In every government there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that depend on the civil law.
By virtue of the first, the prince or magistrate enacts temporary or perpetual laws, and amends or abrogates those that have been already enacted. By the second, he makes peace or war, sends or receives embassies, establishes the public security, and provides against invasions. By the third, he punishes criminals, or determines the disputes that arise between individuals. The latter we shall call the judiciary power, and the other, simply, the executive power of the state.
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.
Again, there is no liberty if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive. Were it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control; for the judge would be then the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with violence and oppression.
There would be an end of every thing, were the same man, or the same body, whether of the nobles or of the people, to exercise those three powers, that of enacting laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and of trying the causes of individuals.
The executive power ought to be in the hands of a monarch, because this branch of government, having need of dispatch, is better administered by one than by many: on the other hand, whatever depends on the legislative power, is oftentimes better regulated by many than by a single person.
But, if there were no monarch, and the executive power should be committed to a certain number of persons, selected from the legislative body, there would be an end of liberty, by reason the two powers would be united; as the same persons would sometimes possess, and would be always able to possess, a share in both.”

“I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.”

“Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.”

“People here argue about religion interminably, but it appears that they are competing at the same time to see who can be the least devout.”

“History is full of religious wars; but, we must take care to observe, it was not the multiplicity of religions that produced these wars, it was the intolerating spirit which animated that one which thought she had the power of governing.”

“I can assure you that no kingdom has ever had as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ.”

“[The Ottoman Empire] whose sick body was not supported by a mild and regular diet, but by a powerful treatment, which continually exhausted it.”

“You have to study a great deal to know a little.”

“One must give one power a ballast, so to speak, to put it in a position to resist another.”

“The laws of Rome had wisely divided public power among a large number of magistracies, which supported, checked and tempered each other. Since they all had only limited power, every citizen was qualified for them, and the people — seeing many persons pass before them one after the other — did not grow accustomed to any in particular. But in these times the system of the republic changed. Through the people the most powerful men gave themselves extraordinary commissions — which destroyed the authority of the people and magistrates, and placed all great matters in the hands of one man, or a few.”

“Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.”

“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law.”

“[The Pope] will make the king believe that three are only one, that the bread he eats is not bread…and a thousand other things of the same kind.”

“If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman, because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.”

“I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise.”

“A man should be mourned at his birth, not at his death.”

“I acknowledge that history is full of religious wars: but we must distinguish; it is not the multiplicity of religions which has produced wars; it is the intolerant spirit animating that which believed itself in the ascendant.”

“The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.”

“Horace and Aristotle told us of the virtues of their fathers, and the vices of their own time, and authors down through the centuries have told us the same. If they were right, men would now be bears.”

“Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?”

“I write to thee on this subject, [friend], because I am angry at a book which I have just left, which is so large, that it seems to contain universal science, but it hath almost split my head, without teaching me anything.”

“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.”

“And yet there is nothing so badly imagined: nature seems to have provided, that the follies of men should be transient, but they by writing books render them permanent. A fool ought to content himself with having wearied those who lived with him: but he is for tormenting future generations; he is desirous that his folly should triumph over oblivion, which he ought to have enjoyed as well as his grave; he is desirous that posterity should be informed that he lived, and that it should be known for ever that he was a fool.”