There is no one, says another, whom fortune does not visit once in his life; but when she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door, and flies out at the window.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUEach particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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Coffee renders many foolish people temporarily capable of wise actions
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The incomparable stupidity of life teaches us to love our parents; divine philosophy teaches us to forgive them.
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Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU -
Thus the creation, which seems an arbitrary act, supposes laws as invariable as those of the fatality of the Atheists. It would be absurd to say that the Creator might govern the world without those rules, since without them it could not subsist.
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Love of the republic in a democracy, is a love of the democracy; love of the democracy is that of equality. Love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality.
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The spirit of commerce… renders every man willing to live on his own property…& prevents the growth of luxury.
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It is clear that in a monarchy, where he who commands the exceution of the laws generally thinks himself above them, there is lessneed of virtue than in a popular government, where the person entrusted with the execution of the laws is sensible of his being subject to their direction.
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The alms given to a naked man in the street do not fulfil the obligations of the state, which owes to every citizen a certain subsistence, a proper nourishment, convenient clothing, and a kind of life not incompatible with health.
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Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.
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They who assert that a blind fatality produced the various effects we behold in this world talk very absurdly; for can anything be more unreasonable than to pretend that a blind fatality could be productive of intelligent beings.
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Virtue is necessary to a republic.
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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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When a government is arrived to that degree of corruption as to be incapable of reforming itself, it would not lose much by being new moulded.
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Power should be a check on power.
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The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.
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Mediocrity is a hand-rail.
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Man, as a physical being, is like other bodies governed by invariable laws.
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Virtue in a republic is the love of one’s country, that is the love of equality.
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What unhappy beings men are! They constantly waver between false hopes and silly fears, and instead of relying on reason they create monsters to frighten themselves with, and phantoms which lead them astray.
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Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.
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Better it is to say that the government most comfortable to nature is that which best agrees with the humor and disposition of the people in whose favor it is established.
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I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise.
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Power ought to serve as a check to power.
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There have never been so many civil wars as in the Kingdom of Christ.
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In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.
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A man who writes well writes not as others write, but as he himself writes; it is often in speaking badly that he speaks well.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU