On the Spirit of the Laws

Recommended edition: Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, baron de. The Spirit of the Laws. Edited and translated by Anne M. Cohler, Basia C. Miller, and Harold Stone. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989.

Excerpt from the recommended edition: I began by examining men, and I believed that, amidst the infinite diversity of laws and mores, they were not led by their fancies alone. I have set down the principles, and I have seen particular cases conform to them as if by themselves, the… More

Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and Their Decline

Recommended edition: Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, baron de. Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and Their Decline. Translated by David Lowenthal. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1999.

Except from the recommended edition: It is not chance that rules the world. Ask the Romans, who had a continuous sequence of successes when they were guided by a certain plan, and an uninterrupted sequence of reverses when they followed another. There are general causes, moral and… More

Persian Letters

Recommended Edition: Bilingual edition by Tony Richardson and John Davidson, Jiahu Books, 201