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

More quotes by Baron de Montesquieu

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Wonderful maxim: not to talk of things any more after they are done.
Baron de Montesquieu
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A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Experience constantly proves that every man who has power is impelled to abuse it he goes on till he is pulled up by some limits. Who would say it! virtue even has need of limits.
Baron de Montesquieu
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You have to study a great deal to know a little.
Baron de Montesquieu
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The prejudices of superstition are superior to all others, and have the strongest influence on the human mind.
Baron de Montesquieu
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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.
Baron de Montesquieu
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The spirit of commerce... renders every man willing to live on his own property...& prevents the growth of luxury.
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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When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner.
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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The severity of the laws prevents their execution.
Baron de Montesquieu
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The life of man is but a succession of vain hopes and groundless fears.
Baron de Montesquieu
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There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently monarchical, but in reality it is more oppressive than monarchy, as the experience of all ages and countries evinces.
Baron de Montesquieu
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When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.
Baron de Montesquieu
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Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less men think, the more they talk.
Baron de Montesquieu
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The state is the association of men, and not men themselves the citizen may perish, and the man remain.
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
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Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?
Baron de Montesquieu
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I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.
Baron de Montesquieu