The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEULaws undertake to punish only overt acts.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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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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There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.
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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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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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It is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power.
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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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Europe is a state with several provinces
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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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When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it and avarice possesses the whole community.
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If triangles had a god, he would have three sides.
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But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.
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The Ottoman Empire whose sick body was not supported by a mild and regular diet, but by a powerful treatment, which continually exhausted it.
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Politics are a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by slow progression.
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Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer.
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When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU