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Oh, how empty is praise when it reflects back to its origin!

Baron de Montesquieu

In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Men Politics Republican
An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Future Life Philosophical
Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Different States War
Human laws made to direct the will ought to give precepts, and not counsels.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Giving Law Made
Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Anger Men Society
The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Knowing Long Success
Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Given Philosophical Talent
A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

People Style Writing
Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual; and the spirit of extreme equality, which conducts it to despotism, as the despotism of a single individual finishes by conquest.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Democracies Government Wisdom
It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Adventure Empires Greatness
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

Aunt Believe East
Virtue is necessary to a republic.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Republic Virtue
Law should be like death, which spares no one.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Law Spare
A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Freedom Liberty Missing
The less men think, the more they talk.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Men Philosophical Thinking
Power ought to serve as a check to power.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU

Checks Ought Power

Oh, how empty is praise when it reflects back to its origin!

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Oh, how empty is praise when it reflects back to its origin!

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