Author: A fool who, not content with having bored those who have lived with him, insists on tormenting generations to come.
Interpretation
Some individuals not only burden those around them with their negativity but also leave a lasting impact on future generations.
This quote by Montesquieu highlights the tendency of certain people to be intolerable, extending their negative influence beyond their immediate circle to affect future generations. It suggests that a foolish person can sap the joy and interest of those around them and, through their written works or actions, persistently challenge the enjoyment of posterity, emphasizing the importance of personal responsibility and the impact of one's legacy.
In practice
In a speech about the impact of literature, one might quote Montesquieu to illustrate how some works shape society long after the author is gone.
When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.
Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.
In bodies moved, the motion is received, increased, diminished, or lost, according to the relations of the quantity of matter and velocity; each diversity is uniformity, each change is constancy.
Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.
Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.
The law of nations is naturally founded on this principle, that different nations ought in time of peace to do one another all the good they can, and in time of war as little injury as possible, without prejudicing their real interests.
[Every disappointment or misfortune can become a blessing in disguise, for which we should be grateful. But only if the hidden blessing is anticipated, expected and searched for will it be found and recognised as such and the most made of it. For example...] Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away hunger.
Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
If any successes has come to me, it came because I insisted on thinking things through. That's all I was capable of doing in life, was thinking pretty hard about trying to get the right answer, and then acting on it. I never learned to do anything else.
An ad hominem attack against an individual, not against an idea, is highly flattering. It indicates that the person does not have anything intelligent to say about your message.
The act of discovering who we are will force us to accept that we can go further than we think.
It's true that no policy fully survives first contact. But if you don't spend time anticipating the shots you are likely to take, you wind up flailing about wildly.
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