There is as yet no liberty if the power of judging be not separated from legislative power and the executrix
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUHappy the people whose annals are tiresome.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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Wonderful maxim: not to talk of things any more after they are done.
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In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.
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The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.
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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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There have never been so many civil wars as in the Kingdom of Christ.
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The English are busy; they don’t have time to be polite.
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The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver.
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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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The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.
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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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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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There are countries where a man is worth nothing; there are others where he is worth less than nothing.
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When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.
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The English are busy folk; they have no time in which to be polite.
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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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Europe is a state with several provinces
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I never listen to calumnies, because if they are untrue I run the risk of being deceived, and if they be true, of hating persons not worth thinking about.
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Certain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.
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Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.
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Slowness is frequently the cause of much greater slowness.
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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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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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Very good laws may be ill timed.
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A rational army would run away.
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Republics are brought to their ends by luxury; monarchies by poverty.
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The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU