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Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
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Vitam Impendere Vero (I consecrate my life to truth).
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The less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect.
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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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Political liberty in a citizen is that tranquillity of spirit which comes from the opinion each one has of his security, and in order for him to have this liberty the government must be such that one citizen cannot fear another citizen.
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Lunch kills half of Paris, supper the other half.
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Love of the republic in a democracy, is a love of the democracy love of the democracy is that of equality. Love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality.
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The wickedness of mankind makes it necessary for the law to suppose them better than they really are.
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Human laws made to direct the will ought to give precepts, and not counsels.
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Fain would I glide down a gentle river, but I am carried away by a torrent.
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It is clear that in a monarchy, where he who commands the exceution of the laws generally thinks himself above them, there is lessneed of virtue than in a popular government, where the person entrusted with the execution of the laws is sensible of his being subject to their direction.
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It is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power.
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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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The love of study is in us the only lasting passion. All the others quit us in proportion as this miserable machine which holds them approaches its ruins.
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Those who have few affairs to attend to are great speakers. The less men think, the more they talk.
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Slowness is frequently the cause of much greater slowness.
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Power ought to serve as a check to power.
Baron de Montesquieu
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When a government lasts a long while, it deteriorates by insensible degrees. Republics end through luxury, monarchies through poverty.
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Vanity and pride of nations vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous.
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The state is the association of men, and not men themselves the citizen may perish, and the man remain.
Baron de Montesquieu
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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.
Baron de Montesquieu