The less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUFalse happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.
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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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There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies; their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently monarchical, but in reality it is more oppressive than monarchy, as the experience of all ages and countries evinces.
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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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In the matter of dress one should always keep below one’s ability.
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The English are busy; they don’t have time to be polite.
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Vitam Impendere Vero (I consecrate my life to truth).
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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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Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.
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Honor is unknown in despotic states.
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A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.
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The wickedness of mankind makes it necessary for the law to suppose them better than they really are.
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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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In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.
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The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU