Montesquieu Quotes

There is a mean in all things; even virtue itself has stated limits; which not being strictly observed, it ceases to be virtue.

It is the function of vice to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.

I've been deeply influenced by Aristotle's idea that virtue is a habit, something you practice and get better at, rather than something that comes naturally. 'The control of the appetites by right reason,' is how he defined it.

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.

In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.

Why is it he feels some line has been crossed, some boundary transgressed? How much is too much, how far is too far?

A man may not transgress the bounds of major morals, but may make errors in minor morals.

He cannot be vertuous that is not rigorous.

At seventy, I could follow the dictates of my own heart; for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right.

Fear to do ill, and you need fear else.

There are men who would do anything, asleep, and I'm not sure what stops them when they wake. I do not know how they draw the line.

Those...who insist that there are some moral limits that they will not violate, are forever surprising themselves.

Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo (Give me chastity and continence, but not just yet)!

Wisdom is the talent of buying virtuous pleasures at the cheapest rate.

Could she fall so low? No, there were limits, and she believed she still knew where some of them were.

... the good for man is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, or if there are more kinds of virtue than one, in accordance with the best and most perfect kind.

Experience constantly proves that every man who has power is impelled to abuse it; he goes on till he is pulled up by some limits. Who would say it! virtue even has need of limits.

While tenderness of feeling and susceptibility to generous emotions are accidents of temperament, goodness is an achievement of the will and a quality of the life.

Kindness steers no easy course. Attributing it to character, we seldom recognize the secret efforts of a noble heart, whereas we reward really wicked people for the evil they refrain from committing.

Where character forbids self-indulgence, transcendence still hovers around.

In society one needs a flexible virtue; too much goodness can be blamable.

...happiness is an activity and a complete utilization of virtue, not conditionally but absolutely.

No one dies too soon who has finished the course of perfect virtue.

Evil things are easy things: for they are natural to our fallen nature. Right things are rare flowers that need cultivation.