Politics are a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by slow progression.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUVanity and pride of nations; vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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Never create by law what can be accomplished by morality.
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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 MONTESQUIEU -
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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Power should be a check on power.
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To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.
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Injustice towards others is a threat to everybody
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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.
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The English are busy; they don’t have time to be polite.
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An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.
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A really intelligent man feels what other men only know.
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Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.
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Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less men think, the more they talk.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU -
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 -
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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With truths of a certain kind, it is not enough to make them appear convincing: one must also make them felt. Of such kind are moral truths.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU