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I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
Wise
Success
Seems
Always
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World
Philosophical
Succeed
Fool
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Mediocrity is a hand-rail.
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The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.
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Man is a social animal formed to please in society.
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I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.
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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.
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The power of divorce can be given only to those who feel the inconveniences of marriage, and who are sensible of the moment when it is for their interest to make them cease.
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Better it is to say that the government most comfortable to nature is that which best agrees with the humor and disposition of the people in whose favor it is established.
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Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less men think, the more they talk.
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Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.
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Love of the republic in a democracy, is a love of the democracy love of the democracy is that of equality. Love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality.
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Republics end through luxury monarchies through poverty.
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The prejudices of superstition are superior to all others, and have the strongest influence on the human mind.
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Certain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.
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As men are affected in all ages by the same passions, the occasions which bring about great changes are different, but the causes are always the same.
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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.
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What unhappy beings men are! They constantly waver between false hopes and silly fears, and instead of relying on reason they create monsters to frighten themselves with, and phantoms which lead them astray.
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Power ought to serve as a check to power.
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Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.
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I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.
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Knowledge humanizes mankind, and reason inclines to mildness but prejudices eradicate every tender disposition.
Baron de Montesquieu