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Human laws made to direct the will ought to give precepts, and not counsels.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
Law
Give
Human
Humans
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Precepts
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Laws
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Ought

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In republican governments, men are all equal equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything in the latter, because they are nothing.
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The spirit of commerce... renders every man willing to live on his own property...& prevents the growth of luxury.
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Men should be bewailed at their birth, and not at their death.
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An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.
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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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Virtue in a republic is the love of one's country, that is the love of equality.
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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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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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If I knew something that would serve my country but would harm mankind, I would never reveal it for I am a citizen of humanity first and by necessity, and a citizen of France second, and only by accident
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Politics are a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by slow progression.
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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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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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The less men think, the more they talk.
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Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.
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Luxury ruins republics poverty, monarchies.
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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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I suffer from the disease of writing books and being ashamed of them when they are finished.
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Certain kinds of foolishness are such that a greater foolishness would be better.
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An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.
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An injustice to one is a threat made to all
Baron de Montesquieu