The Spirit of Laws, Volume 1 |
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able advantage affairs ancient appear authority become body called carried cause China cities citizens civil climate commerce common conquered conquest consequence constitution continued contrary corruption crimes customs danger deprived despotic despotic governments effects empire equal established Europe executive extremely father follow force give given greater hand Hence honor increased inhabitants interest Italy judge kind kings land latter laws legislative less liberty live luxury magistrates manners master means ment merchandise mind moderate monarchy morals nature necessary never obliged observed particular Persians person political present preserve prince principle proper proportion punishment reason received regard regulations relation religion render republic respect riches Romans Rome rule says senate silver slavery slaves soon specie spirit things tion trade virtue wants whole women
Popular passages
Page 152 - Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive. Were it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control; for the judge would be then the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with violence and oppression. There would be an end of everything, were the same man, or the same body, whether of the nobles or of the people, to exercise those three powers, that...
Page 197 - If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods...
Page 127 - Should a popular insurrection happen in one of the confederate states, the others are able to quell it. Should abuses creep into one part, they are reformed by those that remain sound. The state may be destroyed on one side, and not on the other; the confederacy may be dissolved, and the confederates preserve their sovereignty. "As this government is composed of...
Page 150 - We must have continually present to our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would be no longer possessed of liberty, because all his fellow-citizens would have the same power.
Page 151 - In every government there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that depend on the civil law. By virtue of the first, the prince or magistrate enacts temporary or perpetual laws, and amends or abrogates those that have been already enacted.
Page 158 - The great are always obnoxious to popular envy; and were they to be judged by the people, they might be in danger from their judges, and would, moreover, be deprived of the privilege which the meanest subject is possessed of in a free state, of being tried by his peers.
Page 317 - But indeed it well justifies another observation which he has made ", " that the English know " better than any other people upon earth, how to value at " the same time these three great advantages, religion,
Page 127 - It is a kind of assemblage of societies that constitute a new one, capable of increasing, by means of new associations, till they arrive to such a degree of power as to be able to provide for the security of the united body.
Page 312 - Peace is the natural effect of trade. Two nations who traffic with each other become reciprocally dependent; for if one has an interest in buying, the other has an interest in selling; and thus their union is founded on their mutual necessities.
Page 34 - ... self-renunciation, which is ever arduous and painful. This virtue may be defined as the love of the laws and of our country. As...
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Spirit of Laws, Volume 1 The Spirit of Laws, Charles de Secondat baron de Montesquieu The World's great classics |
| Author | Charles de Secondat baron de Montesquieu |
| Translated by | Thomas Nugent |
| Edition | revised |
| Publisher | Colonial Press, 1900 |
| Original from | Harvard University |
| Digitized | Dec 29, 2005 |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |