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That anyone who possesses power has a tendency to abuse it is an eternal truth. They tend to go as far as the barriers will allow.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
Tend
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Eternal
Anyone
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Tendency
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Tendencies
Abuse

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We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.
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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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It is always the adventurous who accomplish great things.
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The less men think, the more they talk.
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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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Human laws made to direct the will ought to give precepts, and not counsels.
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An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.
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In the matter of dress one should always keep below one's ability.
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There is hardly any grief that an hour's reading will not dissipate.
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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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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.
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There should be weeping at a man's birth, not at his death.
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Success in the majority of circumstances depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.
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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.
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Better it is to say that the government most comfortable to nature is that which best agrees with the humor and disposition of the people in whose favor it is established.
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[The Pope] will make the king believe that three are only one, that the bread he eats is not bread... and a thousand other things of the same kind.
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There is something in animals beside the power of motion. They are not machines they feel.
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Solemnity is the shield of idiots
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If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.
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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.
Baron de Montesquieu