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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
Important
Supreme
Believe
Miracle
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Religion
Behalf
Comes
Miracles
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Vanity
Nature
Upset
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An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.
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An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
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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.
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Human laws made to direct the will ought to give precepts, and not counsels.
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Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.
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With truths of a certain kind, it is not enough to make them appear convincing: one must also make them felt. Of such kind are moral truths.
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Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.
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Society is the union of men and not the men themselves.
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I should like to abolish funerals the time to mourn a person is at his birth, not his death.
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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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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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Men in excess of happiness or misery are equally inclined to severity. Witness conquerors and monks! It is mediocrity alone, and a mixture of prosperous and adverse fortune that inspire us with lenity and pity.
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If I knew something that would serve my country but would harm mankind, I would never reveal it for I am a citizen of humanity first and by necessity, and a citizen of France second, and only by accident
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The less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect.
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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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I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.
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Laws, in their most general signification, are the necessary relations derived from the nature of things.
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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.
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The severity of the laws prevents their execution.
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