In every government there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that depend on the civil law.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUWhen 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.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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Virtue in a republic is the love of one’s country, that is the love of equality.
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Liberty… is there only when there is no abuse of power.
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For a country, everything will be lost when the jobs of an economist and a banker become highly respected professions.
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Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people.
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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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A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight.
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To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.
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If you run after wit, you will succeed in catching folly.
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There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies; their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently monarchical, but in reality it is more oppressive than monarchy, as the experience of all ages and countries evinces.
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The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country.
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The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.
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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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In the birth of societies it is the chiefs of states who give it its special character; and afterward it is this special character that forms the chiefs of state.
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Republics come to an end by luxurious habits; monarchies by poverty.
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Mediocrity is a hand-rail.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU