Countries are not cultivated in proportion to their fertility, but to their liberty.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUNo kingdom has shed more blood than the kingdom of Christ.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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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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Solemnity is the shield of idiots
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In a republic there is no coercive force as in other governments, the laws must therefore endeavor to supply this defect.
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In the matter of dress one should always keep below one’s ability.
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At our coming into the world we contract an immense debt to our country, which we can never discharge.
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There is hardly any grief that an hour’s reading will not dissipate.
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That anyone who possesses power has a tendency to abuse it is an eternal truth. They tend to go as far as the barriers will allow.
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There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies; their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently monarchical, but in reality it is more oppressive than monarchy, as the experience of all ages and countries evinces.
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Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.
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Knowledge humanizes mankind, and reason inclines to mildness; but prejudices eradicate every tender disposition.
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The history of commerce is that of the communication of the people.
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It is unreasonable … to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.
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If you run after wit, you will succeed in catching folly.
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If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.
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A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight.
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The harshest tyranny is that which acts under the protection of legality and the banner of justice.
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The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.
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Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.
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Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.
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It is rare to find learned men who are clean, do not stink and have a sense of humour.
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In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.
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I should like to abolish funerals; the time to mourn a person is at his birth, not his death.
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Honor is unknown in despotic states.
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The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.
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When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.
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Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one’s wit at the expense of one’s better nature.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU