To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUIn 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.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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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 wickedness of mankind makes it necessary for the law to suppose them better than they really are.
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An injustice to one is a threat made to all
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Liberty… is there only when there is no abuse of power.
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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.
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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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When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.
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Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.
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Knowledge humanizes mankind, and reason inclines to mildness; but prejudices eradicate every tender disposition.
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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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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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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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The less men think, the more they talk.
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Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.
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It is unreasonable … to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.
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The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.
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Nature is just to all mankind, and repays them for their industry. She renders them industrious by annexing rewards in proportion to their labor.
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At our coming into the world we contract an immense debt to our country, which we can never discharge.
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Laws, in their most general signification, are the necessary relations arising from the nature of things. In this sense all beings have their laws: the Deity His laws, the material world its laws, the intelligences superior to man their laws, the beasts their laws, man his laws.
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Human laws made to direct the will ought to give precepts, and not counsels.
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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.
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Friendship is a contract in which we render small services in expectation of big ones.
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Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people.
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Law should be like death, which spares no one.
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When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU