Happy the people whose annals are tiresome.

[Heureux le peuple dont l’histoire est ennuyeuse.]

Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher

(Attributed)

The phrase is widely attributed to Montesquieu, but not found as such in his works. The earliest use of it in those words is in Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution, Book 2, ch. 1 (1837).

Variants:

• "Happy the people whose history is boring."
• "Happy the nation whose history is dull."
• "Happy the nation whose history is tedious."
• "Happy the people whose annals are vacant." [Also from Carlyle, as an extreme of the attributed Montesquieu quote.]
• "Happy the people whose annals are blank in history-books!"

See also Franklin (1740).

The phrase the complement to the (spurious) Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."