Liberty is the right of doing whatever the laws permit.
BARON DE MONTESQUIEUIn bodies moved, the motion is received, increased, diminished, or lost, according to the relations of the quantity of matter and velocity; each diversity is uniformity, each change is constancy.
More Baron de Montesquieu Quotes
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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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The state is the association of men, and not men themselves; the citizen may perish, and the man remain.
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Men in excess of happiness or misery are equally inclined to severity. Witness conquerors and monks! It is mediocrity alone, and a mixture of prosperous and adverse fortune that inspire us with lenity and pity.
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Great commanders write their actions with simplicity; because they receive more glory from facts than from words.
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A really intelligent man feels what other men only know.
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Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one’s wit at the expense of one’s better nature.
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Political liberty in a citizen is that tranquillity of spirit which comes from the opinion each one has of his security, and in order for him to have this liberty the government must be such that one citizen cannot fear another citizen.
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As virtue is necessary in a republic, and honor in a monarchy, fear is what is required in a despotism. As for virtue, it is not at all necessary, and honor would be dangerous there.
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A man who writes well writes not as others write, but as he himself writes; it is often in speaking badly that he speaks well.
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Slowness is frequently the cause of much greater slowness.
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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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False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared.
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When the savages of Louisiana wish to have fruit, they cut the tree at the bottom and gather the fruit. That is exactly a despotic government.
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Power ought to serve as a check to power.
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Injustice towards others is a threat to everybody
BARON DE MONTESQUIEU