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 →Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.
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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.
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Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.
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Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.
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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.
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