Happy the people whose annals are tiresome.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUFalse happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.
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We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.
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No kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.
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When the [law making] and [law enforcement] powers are united in the same person… there can be no liberty.
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There is something in animals beside the power of motion. They are not machines; they feel.
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Virtue has needs of limits.
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Political liberty in a citizen is that tranquillity of spirit which comes from the opinion each one has of his security, and in order for him to have this liberty the government must be such that one citizen cannot fear another citizen.
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Great commanders write their actions with simplicity; because they receive more glory from facts than from words.
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To lend money without interest, is certainly an action laudable and extremely good; but it is obvious, that it is only a counsel of religion, and not a civil law.
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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.
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A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.
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Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.
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As virtue is necessary in a republic, and honor in a monarchy, fear is what is required in a despotism. As for virtue, it is not at all necessary, and honor would be dangerous there.
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Wherever I find envy I take a pleasure in provoking it: I always praise before an envious man those who make him grow pale.
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As soon as man enters into a state of society he loses the sense of his weakness; equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU