Mediocrity is a hand-rail.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEULife was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.
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It is difficult for the united states to be all of equal power and extent.
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There are only two cases in which war is just: first, in order to resist the aggression of an enemy, and second, in order to help an ally who has been attacked.
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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.
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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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This punishment of death is the remedy, as it were, of a sick society.
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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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Liberty itself has appeared intolerable to those nations who have not been accustomed to enjoy it.
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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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There is as yet no liberty if the power of judging be not separated from legislative power and the executrix
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Christianity stamped its character on jurisprudence; for empire has ever a connection with the priesthood.
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As soon as man enters into a state of society he loses the sense of his weakness; equality ceases, and then commences the state of war.
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Republics are brought to their ends by luxury; monarchies by poverty.
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That anyone who possesses power has a tendency to abuse it is an eternal truth. They tend to go as far as the barriers will allow.
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The power of divorce can be given only to those who feel the inconveniences of marriage, and who are sensible of the moment when it is for their interest to make them cease.
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Nature is just to all mankind, and repays them for their industry. She renders them industrious by annexing rewards in proportion to their labor.
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In every government there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that depend on the civil law.
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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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An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.
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Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.
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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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Happy the people whose annals are tiresome.
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A really intelligent man feels what other men only know.
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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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People here argue about religion interminably, but it appears that they are competing at the same time to see who can be the least devout.
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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 MONTESQUIEU