Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUThe public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.
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There are only two cases in which war is just: first, in order to resist the aggression of an enemy, and second, in order to help an ally who has been attacked.
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There is only one thing that can form a bond between men, and that is gratitude… we cannot give someone else greater power over us than we have ourselves.
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In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.
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Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune.
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Man is a social animal formed to please in society.
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The less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect.
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To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.
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The pagan religion, which prohibited only some of the grosser crimes, and which stopped the hand but meddled not with the heart, might have crimes that were inexplicable.
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Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free.
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There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.
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I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.
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Never create by law what can be accomplished by morality.
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Slowness is frequently the cause of much greater slowness.
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Honor sets all the parts of the body politic in motion, and by its very action connects them; thus each individual advances the public good, while he only thinks of promoting his own interest.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU