Law in general is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth: the political and civil laws of each nation ought to be only the particular cases in which human reason is applied.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThere are countries where a man is worth nothing; there are others where he is worth less than nothing.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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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 life of man is but a succession of vain hopes and groundless fears.
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We ought to be very cautious and circumspect in the prosecution of magic and heresy. The attempt to put down these two crimes may be extremely perilous to liberty.
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I like peasants-they are not sophisticated enough to reason speciously.
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An injustice to one is a threat made to all
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Study has been for me the sovereign remedy against all the disappointments of life. I have never known any trouble that an hour’s reading would not dissipate.
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There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.
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This punishment of death is the remedy, as it were, of a sick society.
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It is unreasonable … to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.
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It is always the adventurous who accomplish great things.
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We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our school-masters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.
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The love of study is in us the only lasting passion. All the others quit us in proportion as this miserable machine which holds them approaches its ruins.
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There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.
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An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.
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The state of slavery is in its own nature bad.
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The history of commerce is that of the communication of the people.
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Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?
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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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Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.
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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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Great commanders write their actions with simplicity; because they receive more glory from facts than from words.
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If you would be holy, instruct your children, because all the good acts they perform will be imputed to you.
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The majority of men are more capable of great actions than of good ones.
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The coffee is prepared in such a way that it makes those who drink it witty: at least there is not a single soul who, on quitting the house, does not believe himself four times wittier that when he entered it.
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If triangles had a god, he would have three sides.
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It is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU