I like peasants-they are not sophisticated enough to reason speciously.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUA man who writes well writes not as others write, but as he himself writes; it is often in speaking badly that he speaks well.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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Ever since the invention of gunpowder.. I continually tremble lest men should, in the end, uncover some secret which would provide a short way of abolishing mankind, of annihilating peoples and nations in their entirety.
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One more organ or one less in our body would give us a different intelligence. In fact, all the established laws as to why our body is a certain way would be different if our body were not that way.
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An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.
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I suffer from the disease of writing books and being ashamed of them when they are finished.
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The laws do not take upon them to punish any other than overt acts.
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It is clear that in a monarchy, where he who commands the exceution of the laws generally thinks himself above them, there is lessneed of virtue than in a popular government, where the person entrusted with the execution of the laws is sensible of his being subject to their direction.
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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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Wonderful maxim: not to talk of things any more after they are done.
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Law in general is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth: the political and civil laws of each nation ought to be only the particular cases in which human reason is applied.
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Passion makes us feel, but never see clearly.
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The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.
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I acknowledge that history is full of religious wars: but we must distinguish; it is not the multiplicity of religions which has produced these wars; it was the intolerating spirit which animated that one which thought she had the power of governing.
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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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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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Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people.
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Coffee renders many foolish people temporarily capable of wise actions
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There are bad examples which are worse than crimes; and more states have perished from the violation of morality than from the violation of law.
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The alms given to a naked man in the street do not fulfil the obligations of the state, which owes to every citizen a certain subsistence, a proper nourishment, convenient clothing, and a kind of life not incompatible with health.
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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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Democracy is corrupted not only when the spirit of equality is corrupted, but likewise when they fall into a spirit of extreme equality.
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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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The reason the Romans built their great paved highways was because they had such inconvenient footwear.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU -
The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU -
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 MONTESQUIEU -
The prejudices of superstition are superior to all others, and have the strongest influence on the human mind.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU -
It is always the adventurous who accomplish great things.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU