Author: A fool who, not content with having bored those who have lived with him, insists on tormenting generations to come.
MontesquieuRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Concentration of power in a single entity threatens freedom.
This quote by Montesquieu highlights the dangers of consolidating legislative and executive powers within the same individual or governing body. It argues that such a concentration undermines liberty, as it opens the door for the enactment and enforcement of oppressive laws, ultimately leading to tyranny and the suppression of individual freedoms.
Themes
PowerLibertyTyrannyGovernmentFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about government structure at a civic engagement event.
More from Montesquieu
All quotes βMan, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.
MontesquieuRead
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.
MontesquieuRead
Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.
MontesquieuRead
Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.
MontesquieuRead
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.
MontesquieuRead
Similar quotes
Do we want to be remembered as the generation that saved the banks and let the biosphere collapse?
George MonbiotRead
If people tell you that _x000D_ you should live your life preparing for the future, do not believe _x000D_ them. Real Life is found only in the present.
Leo TolstoyRead
In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.
Bertrand RussellRead
It's interesting because I think class is a heavy, heavy part of 'Moonlight,' and I think, in a certain way, through the sum of all these parts, it's become a commentary on the black experience in America.
Barry JenkinsRead
If a man isn't a certain age, he just isn't interesting.
Marilyn MonroeRead
To ignore Scripture is to ignore Christ.
St. JeromeRead