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.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUIn 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.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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The Christian religion is a stranger to mere despotic power. The mildness so frequently recommended in the Gospel is incompatible with the despotic rage.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU -
Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune.
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The spirit of commerce… renders every man willing to live on his own property…& prevents the growth of luxury.
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Coffee renders many foolish people temporarily capable of wise actions
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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.
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When a government lasts a long while, it deteriorates by insensible degrees. Republics end through luxury, monarchies through poverty.
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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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Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.
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The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.
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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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In bodies moved, the motion is received, increased, diminished, or lost, according to the relations of the quantity of matter and velocity; each diversity is uniformity, each change is constancy.
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Liberty itself has appeared intolerable to those nations who have not been accustomed to enjoy it.
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Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.
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If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman… because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.
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Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU