We have said that the laws were the particular and precise institutions of a legislator, and manners and customs the institutions of a nation in general. Hence it follows that when these manners and customs are to be changed, it ought not to be done by laws; this would have too much the air of tyranny: it would be better to change them by introducing other manners and other customs.
[Nous avons dit que les loix étoient des institutions particulieres & précises du législateur, & les mœurs & les manieres des institutions de la nation en général. De-là il suit que, lorsque l’on veut changer les mœurs & les manieres, il ne faut pas les changer par les loix ; cela paroîtroit trop tyrannique: il vaut mieux les changer par d’autres mœurs & d’autres manieres.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 19, ch. 14 (1748) [tr. Nugent (1750)]
More info about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montesquieu/80963/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #montesquieu #change #customs #institutions #laws #legalsystem #legislation #manners #morals #mores #socialchange
#quote
#socialchange
#quotes
#mores
#legislation
#change
#qotd
#laws
#morals
#quotation
#institutions
#manners
#customs
#legalsystem
#montesquieu