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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.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
Nature
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I never listen to calumnies, because if they are untrue I run the risk of being deceived, and if they be true, of hating persons not worth thinking about.
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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.
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There should be weeping at a man's birth, not at his death.
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The incomparable stupidity of life teaches us to love our parents divine philosophy teaches us to forgive them.
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When one wants to change manners and customs, one should not do so by changing the laws.
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In the state of nature... all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.
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Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.
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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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When the [law making] and [law enforcement] powers are united in the same person... there can be no liberty.
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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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We ought to be very cautious and circumspect in the prosecution of magic and heresy. The attempt to put down these two crimes may be extremely perilous to liberty.
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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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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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The spirit of commerce... renders every man willing to live on his own property...& prevents the growth of luxury.
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Study has been for me the sovereign remedy against all the disappointments of life. I have never known any trouble that an hour's reading would not dissipate.
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It is always the adventurous who accomplish great things.
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I have ever held it as a maxim never to do that through another which it was impossible for me to execute myself
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Republics come to an end by luxurious habits monarchies by poverty.
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When God endowed human beings with brains, He did not intend to guarantee them.
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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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