Talk:Montesquieu

i have taken this quote as it is from Spinoza, in the Letter 60 to Hugo Boxel.
 * If triangles had a god, he would have three sides.
 * No. 59



Unsourced
Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable, precise and verifiable source for any quote on this list please move it to Charles de Montesquieu. --Antiquary 09:22, 11 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Happy the people whose annals are tiresome.

(NOTE: This quote is attributed to Montesquieu by Thomas Carlyle in The French Revolution: a History (1837). The reference is found at the beginning of Book II, Chapter 1, wherein Carlyle writes, "A paradoxical philosopher, carrying to the uttermost length that aphorism of Montesquieu's, 'Happy the people whose annals are tiresome,' has said, 'Happy the people whose annals are vacant.'") 2601:14B:4480:70:DC1C:F5A6:F1E8:A6DE 00:37, 15 April 2019 (UTC)


 * When two nations come into contact with one another, they can either fight or trade. If they fight, both lose; if they trade both gain.


 * Financiers support the state as the rope supports the hanged man.

Two quotes from Pensees (Kindle Edition) by Montesquieu, Basil Gentleman (trans)

 * What is not useful to the swarm is not useful to the bee.
 * My Thoughts, Basil Gentleman, trans. (2013)
 * Love for the successor is nothing but hatred for the predecessor.
 * My Thoughts, Basil Gentleman, trans. (2013)

These quotes are temporary removed because: Some improvements are needed here, before one or both quotes can be added back. -- Mdd (talk) 09:43, 24 April 2014 (UTC)
 * 1) The first quote is attributed to, see The New World Vol. 3, (1894), p. 119
 * 2) The book title, according to Amazon.com is "Pensee" and not "My thought"
 * 3) Also, a preview of this work on Amazon shows that the second quote is the first mentioned
 * 4) This is listed at Amazon as "Kindle Edition", whatever this means.

Disputed: "power [...] check to power"
Under the heading "Disputed", the quote "Power ought to serve as a check to power" as quoted in Hostile Takeover (2004) by S. Andrew Swann, is said to not have been located in Montesquieu's works, although a reference to De l'Esprit des Lois Book V Chapter 14 is given, which alludes to a similar concept in completely different words. However, earlier on the same page, the quote from Swann is reported almost exactly to have been given in De l'Esprit des Lois Book XI Chapter 4: "[To prevent this abuse, it is necessary from the very nature of things that] power should be a check to power."

Therefore, it is an error for this quote to be disputed; the correct source is known. 73.53.61.168 14:15, 19 July 2014 (UTC)