When we seek after wit, we discover only foolishness.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUExperience 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.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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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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Peace is a natural effect of trade.
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It is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power.
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Political liberty in a citizen is that tranquillity of spirit which comes from the opinion each one has of his security, and in order for him to have this liberty the government must be such that one citizen cannot fear another citizen.
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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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There is something in animals beside the power of motion. They are not machines; they feel.
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…when the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.
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The law of nations is naturally founded on this principle, that different nations ought in time of peace to do one another all the good they can, and in time of war as little injury as possible, without prejudicing their real interests.
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It is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another.
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The crime against nature will never make any great progress in society unless people are prompted to it by some particular custom.
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Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.
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Liberty itself has appeared intolerable to those nations who have not been accustomed to enjoy it.
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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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I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.
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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.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU