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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.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
Dangerous
Virtue
Fear
Despotism
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Honor

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Vanity and pride of nations vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous.
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Virtue in a republic is the love of one's country, that is the love of equality.
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Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments.
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Law in general is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth: the political and civil laws of each nation ought to be only the particular cases in which human reason is applied.
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Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?
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Republics end through luxury monarchies through poverty.
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A fondness for reading changes the inevitable dull hours of our life into exquisite hours of delight.
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To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.
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Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.
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Europe is a state with several provinces
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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.
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Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.
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Knowledge humanizes mankind, and reason inclines to mildness but prejudices eradicate every tender disposition.
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I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.
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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 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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