The majority of men are more capable of great actions than of good ones.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThey who assert that a blind fatality produced the various effects we behold in this world talk very absurdly; for can anything be more unreasonable than to pretend that a blind fatality could be productive of intelligent beings.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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Vanity and pride of nations; vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous.
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Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.
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A really intelligent man feels what other men only know.
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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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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 Pope] will make the king believe that three are only one, that the bread he eats is not bread… and a thousand other things of the same kind.
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To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.
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There is as yet no liberty if the power of judging be not separated from legislative power and the executrix
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The state is the association of men, and not men themselves; the citizen may perish, and the man remain.
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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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Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.
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Injustice towards others is a threat to everybody
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Wonderful maxim: not to talk of things any more after they are done.
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You have to study a great deal to know a little.
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A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU