The wickedness of mankind makes it necessary for the law to suppose them better than they really are.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUHappy the people whose annals are tiresome.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.
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It is unreasonable … to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.
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There is no one, says another, whom fortune does not visit once in his life; but when she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door, and flies out at the window.
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There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU -
An injustice to one is a threat made to all
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When God endowed human beings with brains, He did not intend to guarantee them.
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Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.
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Although born in a prosperous realm, we did not believe that its boundaries should limit our knowledge, and that the lore of the East should alone enlighten us.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU -
Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one’s wit at the expense of one’s better nature.
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Countries are not cultivated in proportion to their fertility, but to their liberty.
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What cowardice it is to be dismayed by the happiness of others and devastated by there good fortune.
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The life of man is but a succession of vain hopes and groundless fears.
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Power ought to serve as a check to power.
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Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less men think, the more they talk.
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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.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU