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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.

Baron de Montesquieu

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Baron de Montesquieu
Government
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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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I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise.
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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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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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Honor sets all the parts of the body politic in motion, and by its very action connects them thus each individual advances the public good, while he only thinks of promoting his own interest.
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Luxury ruins republics poverty, monarchies.
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I never listen to calumnies, because if they are untrue I run the risk of being deceived, and if they be true, of hating persons not worth thinking about.
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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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You have to study a great deal to know a little.
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In bodies moved, the motion is received, increased, diminished, or lost, according to the relations of the quantity of matter and velocity each diversity is uniformity, each change is constancy.
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It is always the adventurous who accomplish great things.
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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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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.
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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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An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.
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I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.
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It is not the young people that degenerate they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.
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When the body of the people is possessed of the supreme power, it is called a democracy.
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To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.
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