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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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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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What unhappy beings men are! They constantly waver between false hopes and silly fears, and instead of relying on reason they create monsters to frighten themselves with, and phantoms which lead them astray.
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Solemnity is the shield of idiots
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In the state of nature... all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.
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To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.
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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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When a government is arrived to that degree of corruption as to be incapable of reforming itself, it would not lose much by being new moulded.
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The severity of the laws prevents their execution.
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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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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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There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.
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Vanity and pride of nations vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous.
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I suffer from the disease of writing books and being ashamed of them when they are finished.
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There should be weeping at a man's birth, not at his death.
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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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What cowardice it is to be dismayed by the happiness of others and devastated by there good fortune.
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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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The incomparable stupidity of life teaches us to love our parents divine philosophy teaches us to forgive them.
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A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.
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