Liberty… is there only when there is no abuse of power.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUDemocracy 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.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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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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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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Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it.
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A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight.
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Liberty is the right to do what the law permits.
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There have never been so many civil wars as in the Kingdom of Christ.
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Slowness is frequently the cause of much greater slowness.
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Happy the people whose annals are tiresome.
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When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.
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A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.
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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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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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When the [law making] and [law enforcement] powers are united in the same person… there can be no liberty.
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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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The majority of men are more capable of great actions than of good ones.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU






