The laws do not take upon them to punish any other than overt acts.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUIn every government there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that depend on the civil law.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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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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Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.
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In the state of nature… all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.
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When God endowed human beings with brains, He did not intend to guarantee them.
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The less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect.
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Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.
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The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country.
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Human laws made to direct the will ought to give precepts, and not counsels.
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I acknowledge that history is full of religious wars: but we must distinguish; it is not the multiplicity of religions which has produced these wars; it was the intolerating spirit which animated that one which thought she had the power of governing.
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Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people.
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The prejudices of superstition are superior to all others, and have the strongest influence on the human mind.
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The life of man is but a succession of vain hopes and groundless fears.
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With truths of a certain kind, it is not enough to make them appear convincing: one must also make them felt. Of such kind are moral truths.
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Christianity stamped its character on jurisprudence; for empire has ever a connection with the priesthood.
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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.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU






