As men are affected in all ages by the same passions, the occasions which bring about great changes are different, but the causes are always the same.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThe spirit of commerce… renders every man willing to live on his own property…& prevents the growth of luxury.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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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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The incomparable stupidity of life teaches us to love our parents; divine philosophy teaches us to forgive them.
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What cowardice it is to be dismayed by the happiness of others and devastated by there good fortune.
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Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.
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What orators lack in depth they make up for in length.
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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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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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Liberty itself has appeared intolerable to those nations who have not been accustomed to enjoy it.
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When a government lasts a long while, it deteriorates by insensible degrees. Republics end through luxury, monarchies through poverty.
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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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When the [law making] and [law enforcement] powers are united in the same person… there can be no liberty.
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I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.
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The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.
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Honor is unknown in despotic states.
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Liberty… is there only when there is no abuse of power.
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Fain would I glide down a gentle river, but I am carried away by a torrent.
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The culminating point of administration is to know well how much power, great or small, we ought to use in all circumstances.
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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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Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.
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If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier that other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are. you are comparing your lot with an ideal which is of course better and therefore you feel worse
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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 the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.
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Power should be a check on power.
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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.
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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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There should be weeping at a man’s birth, not at his death.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU