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When the [law making] and [law enforcement] powers are united in the same person... there can be no liberty.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
Law
United
Making
Persons
Person
Enforcement
Powers
Liberty

More quotes by Baron de Montesquieu

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The severity of the laws prevents their execution.
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There is as yet no liberty if the power of judging be not separated from legislative power and the executrix
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At our coming into the world we contract an immense debt to our country, which we can never discharge.
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I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise.
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Nature is just to all mankind, and repays them for their industry. She renders them industrious by annexing rewards in proportion to their labor.
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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 Christian religion is a stranger to mere despotic power. The mildness so frequently recommended in the Gospel is incompatible with the despotic rage.
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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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The public business must be carried on with a certain motion, neither too quick nor too slow.
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Certain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.
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There is hardly any grief that an hour's reading will not dissipate.
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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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I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there.
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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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An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
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The less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect.
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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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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.
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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You have to study a great deal to know a little.
Baron de Montesquieu