Montesquieu Quotes

All men therefore among themselves are by nature equal; the inequality we now discern, hath its spring from the Civil Law.

No one has yet been found resolute enough in dogmatizing to deny that Nature made man equal; that society has destroyed this equality is a truth not more incontrovertible.

The philosophers, who have inquired into the foundations of society, have all felt the necessity of going back to a state of nature; but not one of them has got there.

No person ought to be in a worse condition when born under what is called a state of civilization, than he would have been had he been born in a state of nature

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

Nature has made men free and equal. The distinctions necessary for social order are only founded on general utility.

Men speak of natural rights, but I challenge any one to show where in nature any rights existed or were recognized until there was established for their declaration and protection a duly promulgated body of corresponding laws.

The doctrine that all men are, in any sense, or have been, at any time, free and equal, is an utterly baseless fiction.

I do know that God created us equal and we're not living up to it.

We are all equal, rich and poor, and we need a society where the people enjoy their rights.

As soon as man enters into a state of society he loses the sense of his weakness; equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.

The law is equal before all of us; but we are not all equal before the law

On the battlefield, there is no distinction between upper and lower class.

In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors.

Every man who comes to England is entitled to the protection of the English law, whatever oppression he may heretofore have suffered, and whatever may be the colour of his skin, whether it is black or whether it is white.

It is to secure our rights that we resort to government at all.

I Burchard, bishop of the church of Worms, on account of the strenuous lamentations of the wretched, and the frequent schemes of those many people who tear like dogs at the familia of St. Peter, imposing various laws on them and oppressing the weaker among them by their judgments; with the advice of the clergy and knights and the whole familia I have ordered that these laws be written down, so that no advocate or agent or official or any other person among them may impose on the familia anything new; rather, let it be known before everyone that there is one and the same law, common to rich and poor alike.

Individual freedom and individual equality cannot co-exist…. no one since Thomas Jefferson ... has really believed it.

However energetically society in general may strive to make all the citizens equal and alike, the personal pride of each individual will always make him try to escape from the common level, and he will form some inequality somewhere to his own profit.

When each citizen submits himself to the authority of law he does not thereby decrease his independence or freedom, but rather increases it. By recognizing that he is a part of a larger body which is banded together for a common purpose, he becomes more than an individual, he rises to a new dignity of citizenship. Instead of finding himself restricted and confined by rendering obedience to public law, he finds himself protected and defended and in the exercise of increased and increasing rights.

I know no human being exempt from the law. The law is the security of the people of England; it is the security of every person that is governed, and of every person that governs.

The great can protect themselves, but the poor and humble require the arm and shield of the law.

Here everyone is his own master. Civil liberty places all inhabitants on an equal footing. The humble cannot be oppressed by the mighty, nor the poor by the rich.

I do believe in humanism, and I believe that we should treat each other with respect and care and look after each other. All human beings should have an equal chance to survive in society, and inequality is a big problem in society.

Among unequals what society Can sort, what harmony, or true delight?