Baron de Montesquieu

Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 1689, La Brède, Gironde – 10 February 1755), was a French social commentator and political thinker who lived during the Era of the Enlightenment. He is famous for his articulation of the theory of separation of powers. One of his many writings was “The Spirit of the Laws” which articulated many of the founding principles on which the United States Constitution and the United States Government were based upon. While many political philosophers contributed to the ideas that guided the Founding Fathers of the United States, Baron de Montesquieu and John Locke were in my opinion the two greatest and most influential.

Links:

Stanford University’s Montesquieu Page

Quotes:

“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.”

“Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.”

“The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles.”

“But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.”

“Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune. The state of slavery is in its own nature bad. It is neither useful to the master nor to the slave; not to the slave, because he can do nothing through a motive of virtue; nor to the master, because by having an unlimited authority over his slaves he insensibly accustoms himself to the want of all moral virtues, and thence becomes fierce, hasty, severe, choleric, voluptuous, and cruel. … where it is of the utmost importance that human nature should not be debased or dispirited, there ought to be no slavery. In democracies, where they are all upon equality; and in aristocracies, where the laws ought to use their utmost endeavors to procure as great an equality as the nature of the government will permit, slavery is contrary to the spirit of the constitution: it only contributes to give a power and luxury to the citizens which they ought not to have.”

“A government should be set up so no man need be afraid of another.”

“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.”