Montesquieu

MONTESQUIEU

Montesquieu
Books

The Spirit of the Laws. "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."^1a HOBBES

"There are two sources of corruptions — one when the people do not observe the laws; the other when they are corrupted by the laws: an incurable evil, because it is in the very remedy itself."^1b NADER AYOUB

"Great is the superiority which one fellow-subject has already over another, by lending him money, which the latter borrows in order to spend, and, of course, has no longer in his possession. . .
At Athens and Rome it was at first permitted to sell such debtors as were insolvent. Solon redressed this abuse at Athens . . . But the decemvirs did not reform the same custom at Rome . . .
Often did those cruel laws against debtors throw the Roman republic into danger. . .
Since that time creditors were oftener prosecuted by debtors for having violated the laws against usury than the latter were sued for refusing to pay them."^1c PLATO ARISTOTLE MAIMONIDES POUND

"Sir William Petty, in his calculations, supposes that a man in England is worth what he would sell for at Algiers [sixty pounds sterling]. This can be true only with respect to England. There are countries where a man is worth nothing; there are others where he is worth less than nothing."^1d

" . . . [I]nsomuch that among the Germans, contrary to the practice of all other nations, justice was administered in order to protect the criminal against the party injured."^1e


	Montesquieu. The Spirit of the Laws, Vols. 1-2. [The Hafner Library of Classics.] SEARCH BUY IT

	Montesquieu. The Spirit of the Laws. [Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought.] SEARCH BUY IT

Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline.

Montesquieu. Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline.
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Persian Letters.

Montesquieu. Persian Letters. [Penguin Classics.]
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¹ Baron de Montesquieu (Charles Louis de Secondat, 1689-1755). The Spirit of the Laws, Vols. 1-2. Translated by Thomas Nugent, with an Introduction by Franz Neumann. New York, NY: Hafner Press, A Division of the Free Press, 1949.
^a Vol. I, Book I: On Laws in General, at 5.
^b Vol. I, Book VI: Consequences of the Principles of Different Governments with Respect to the Simplicity of Civil and Criminal Laws, the Form of Judgments, and the Inflicting of Punishment, at 85.
^c Vol. 1, Book XII: On the Laws that Form Political Liberty, in Relation to the Subject, at 200-201.
^d Vol. II, Book XXIII: On Laws in the Relation they Bear to the Number of Inhabitants, at 11.
^e Vol. II, Book XXX: Theory of the Feudal Laws Among the Franks in the Relation they Bear to the Establishment of the Monarchy, at 200.

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