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.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUEver since the invention of gunpowder.. I continually tremble lest men should, in the end, uncover some secret which would provide a short way of abolishing mankind, of annihilating peoples and nations in their entirety.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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The false notion of miracles comes of our vanity, which makes us believe we are important enough for the Supreme Being to upset nature on our behalf.
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I shall be obliged to wander to the right and to the left, that I may investigate and discover the truth.
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The majority of men are more capable of great actions than of good ones.
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Power ought to serve as a check to power.
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Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of intolerance… the spread of which can only be regarded as the total eclipse of human reason.
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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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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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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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Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual; and the spirit of extreme equality, which conducts it to despotism, as the despotism of a single individual finishes by conquest.
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Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune.
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There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.
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Friendship is a contract in which we render small services in expectation of big ones.
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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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The laws do not take upon them to punish any other than overt acts.
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Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.
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You have to study a great deal to know a little.
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Each citizen contributes to the revenues of the State a portion of his property in order that his tenure of the rest may be secure.
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It is always the adventurous who accomplish great things.
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The less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect.
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There is as yet no liberty if the power of judging be not separated from legislative power and the executrix
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But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.
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When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it and avarice possesses the whole community.
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Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.
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If I knew something that would serve my country but would harm mankind, I would never reveal it; for I am a citizen of humanity first and by necessity, and a citizen of France second, and only by accident
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The state of slavery is in its own nature bad.
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An injustice to one is a threat made to all
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU