Author: A fool who, not content with having bored those who have lived with him, insists on tormenting generations to come.
Interpretation
Some individuals not only burden those around them with their negativity but also leave a lasting impact on future generations.
This quote by Montesquieu highlights the tendency of certain people to be intolerable, extending their negative influence beyond their immediate circle to affect future generations. It suggests that a foolish person can sap the joy and interest of those around them and, through their written works or actions, persistently challenge the enjoyment of posterity, emphasizing the importance of personal responsibility and the impact of one's legacy.
In practice
In a speech about the impact of literature, one might quote Montesquieu to illustrate how some works shape society long after the author is gone.
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.
Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.
In bodies moved, the motion is received, increased, diminished, or lost, according to the relations of the quantity of matter and velocity; each diversity is uniformity, each change is constancy.
Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.
Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.
The law of nations is naturally founded on this principle, that different nations ought in time of peace to do one another all the good they can, and in time of war as little injury as possible, without prejudicing their real interests.
Most misfortunes are the results of misused time.
Whipping and abuse are like laudanum: you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.
Women and wine, game and deceit, make the wealth small, and the want great
Who could be so lucky? Who comes to a lake for water and sees the reflection of moon.
The easiest thing to do on earth is not write.
The end of suffering happens in this very moment, whether you're watching a terrorist attack or doing the dishes. And compassion begins at home. Because I don't believe my thoughts, sadness can't exist. That's how I can go to the depths of anyone's suffering, if they invite me, and take them by the hand and walk them out of it into the sunlight of reality. I've taken that walk myself.
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