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A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
May
Nation
Lose
Loses
Century
Liberty
Politics
Liberties
Nations
Miss
Freedom
Missing

More quotes by Baron de Montesquieu

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Knowledge humanizes mankind, and reason inclines to mildness but prejudices eradicate every tender disposition.
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I shall be obliged to wander to the right and to the left, that I may investigate and discover the truth.
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Slowness is frequently the cause of much greater slowness.
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Republics end through luxury monarchies through poverty.
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The false notion of miracles comes of our vanity, which makes us believe we are important enough for the Supreme Being to upset nature on our behalf.
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When the [law making] and [law enforcement] powers are united in the same person... there can be no liberty.
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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
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Luxury ruins republics poverty, monarchies.
Baron de Montesquieu
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I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.
Baron de Montesquieu
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It is clear that in a monarchy, where he who commands the exceution of the laws generally thinks himself above them, there is lessneed of virtue than in a popular government, where the person entrusted with the execution of the laws is sensible of his being subject to their direction.
Baron de Montesquieu
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...when the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.
Baron de Montesquieu
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A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.
Baron de Montesquieu
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A rational army would run away.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people.
Baron de Montesquieu
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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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In 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.
Baron de Montesquieu
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An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Sometimes a man who deserves to be looked upon because he is a fool is despised only because he is a lawyer.
Baron de Montesquieu