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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.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Baron de Montesquieu
Constantly
Relying
Lead
Phantoms
Beings
Hopes
Instead
Monsters
Create
Fears
Fear
Silly
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Reason
Unhappy
Astray
Men
False
Frighten
More quotes by Baron de Montesquieu
Knowledge humanizes mankind, and reason inclines to mildness but prejudices eradicate every tender disposition.
Baron de Montesquieu
An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
Baron de Montesquieu
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.
Baron de Montesquieu
Certain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.
Baron de Montesquieu
Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.
Baron de Montesquieu
Human laws made to direct the will ought to give precepts, and not counsels.
Baron de Montesquieu
The severity of the laws prevents their execution.
Baron de Montesquieu
I shall be obliged to wander to the right and to the left, that I may investigate and discover the truth.
Baron de Montesquieu
Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.
Baron de Montesquieu
The prejudices of superstition are superior to all others, and have the strongest influence on the human mind.
Baron de Montesquieu
There is no one, says another, whom fortune does not visit once in his life but when she does not find him ready to receive her, she walks in at the door, and flies out at the window.
Baron de Montesquieu
Great commanders write their actions with simplicity because they receive more glory from facts than from words.
Baron de Montesquieu
Laws undertake to punish only overt acts.
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Fain would I glide down a gentle river, but I am carried away by a torrent.
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Trade is the best cure for prejudice.
Baron de Montesquieu
When a government is arrived to that degree of corruption as to be incapable of reforming itself, it would not lose much by being new moulded.
Baron de Montesquieu
Power ought to serve as a check to power.
Baron de Montesquieu
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
To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.
Baron de Montesquieu
In the matter of dress one should always keep below one's ability.
Baron de Montesquieu